BEIRUT, May 21 (Xinhua) -- Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) representative in Lebanon Abbas Zaki on Monday pledged "cooperation" with the Lebanese state and its army to wipe out the militants fighting with the army in a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon.

    After talks with Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Seniora at the Grand Serail (the premier's office) Monday, Zaki stressed the need to enhance "full cooperation" with the Lebanese state and its army to resolve what he termed Fatah al-Islam's "phenomenon."

    Some 30,000 displaced Palestinians live at the camp. Under a 38-year-old deal, Lebanese police and soldiers can not enter the camp.

    Seniora had been negotiating a break of the rule and seeking to get into the camp to wipe out the Islamic militants.

    Zaki said he left it up to Seniora to decide whether to send the army into the camp, but warned that "entering the camp does not mean it will be easy to get rid of this phenomenon."

    "We are open... to all the demands of the Lebanese state. We hope to cooperate in order to eliminate the Fatah al-Islam phenomenon, on the condition innocent civilians do not pay a high price," said Zaki.

    As fighting between the Lebanese troops and militants around the Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon entered the second day on Monday, soldiers tightened their grip around camp and were shelling positions of the Fatah al-Islam faction at the entrances of the camp.

    By noon Monday, 57 people, including 27 soldiers, had been killed, rising from last night's toll of 48. Local media said most of the killed today are civilians.

    Media reports said at least 70 people were also wounded in the camp Monday, many of whom were trapped inside the camp and could not get timely medical treatment.

    Richard Cook, director of the United Nations Relief Works Agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) in Lebanon, described the fighting in and around the camp was "distressing."

    "We are deeply concerned about the developing humanitarian crisis, particularly the danger to civilian lives," he said in a statement on Monday.

    The fighting started at dawn on Sunday after security forces raided homes in the refugee camp to arrest suspects in a bank robbery happened one day ago, when four masked gunman robbed a bank in the northern town of Amioun and made off with 125,000 U.S. dollars in cash.

    Militants from Fatah al-Islam, a Islamic faction based there whose leader is a Palestinian refugee, then attacked army posts at the refugee camp.