"Israel has no intention of reoccupying the Gaza Strip," said Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's spokeswoman Miri Eisin while bitter clashes between the Islamists and the secular Fatah pushed into a second week, killing more than 80 people.

"Our military presence in Gaza will only create problems rather than solve them," said Eisin, just days after Olmert himself said Israel could not enter Gaza "to fight the extremists on behalf of the Palestinian pragmatists".

"The only certainty is that this civil war, triggered by a military operation launched by Hamas, is good neither for the Palestinians, nor for the Israelis," his spokeswoman stressed.

The Palestinian question would be central to next Tuesday's talks between Olmert and US President George W. Bush at the White House, she indicated.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas was said to be seriously considering whether to sack the coalition government uniting his Fatah party and Hamas, faced with the escalating bloodshed that has eluded his calls for a ceasefire.

But Israeli officials also seemed to shy away from the possibility of approving arms deliveries to Fatah in Gaza in order to bolster its fighting capability against the frequently better disciplined Hamas.

"The situation is very complicated and all options should be examined with care," Eisin told AFP when asked about such a possible arms shipment or potential dialogue with Hamas, boycotted by Israel as a terrorist organisation.

The influential chairman of parliament's defence and foreign affairs committee said Israel would not allow arms to be handed over to Fatah in Gaza but that doing so in the West Bank "merits serious thought".