BETHLEHEM, West Bank, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Ahmed Qurei, a senior Fatah official, said on Tuesday Fatah's general convention has to succeed in face of the internal Palestinian split.

    He made the remarks at the opening session of the sixth general conference of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party in the West Bank city of Bethlehem.

    "We are facing a big challenge that we can't evade, there is no choice but to succeed and to come out from the conference with a hand to continue," said Qurei, a peace negotiator who is presiding the conference.

    About 2,267 Fatah members were initially expected to attend the conference, but more than 400 Gaza-based invitees are absent since the Islamic Hamas movement, Fatah's bitter rival which controls the Gaza Strip, barred the conferees from traveling to the West Bank.

    "This step has deepened the wound of the internal Palestinian split," Qurei said, referring to Hamas's takeover of the Gaza Strip in 2007. He insisted that Fatah should stick to Egyptian-mediated talks with Hamas despite the Islamic movement's moves.

    Nearly 80 Arab and international delegations and parties are attending the opening session of the three-day conference which is being held in a hall of a school near the Church of Nativity.

    The conference will elect a new central committee and a revolutionary council to replace the current bodies that had been elected in August 1989.

    Security measures have been tightened as hundreds of policemen have been deployed on the streets leading to the school.

Special Report: Palestine-Israel Conflicts