...Salam Fayyad, who was appointed prime minister in the Palestinian Authority's emergency government, summoned 800 preachers from across the West Bank and warned them to keep politics out of their pulpits.

Many West Bank mosques are sympathetic to the Islamist movement and many religious leaders also have political connections to Hamas. "We won't allow them to be turned into places of incitement and intimidation," Mr Fayyad said. "It's the responsibility of men of religion to present religion as a way of tolerance, not as a cover for bloodshed."

The move is part of an ongoing campaign by the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, to crack down on Islamic militancy following his forces' defeat in Gaza...

...However, it's not yet clear whether Mr Abbas will be strong enough to enforce his decrees. Islamist clerics said yesterday they would continue to preach as before. "If they mean stopping people from expressing their political opinion, it will not work," Ismail Awawdeh, a Hamas activist from a village near Hebron, said after prayers yesterday. "Most people, whether they are Hamas or not, have high political awareness."...

...At a mosque in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Friday, a preacher taunted his Fatah rivals in his weekly sermon. Two police cars were parked outside the mosque during the sermon.

In the West Bank city of Jenin, a pro-Hamas preacher was replaced by a clergyman who spoke of the need to support the new Palestinian government, headed by Fayad.

However, Hamas leader Maher Kharas railed against the U.S., Israel and Palestinian moderates in a sermon at a mosque in the old city of Nablus, an area raided by Israeli troops seeking Palestinian militants earlier in the day.

"Israel soldiers invaded Nablus for two days. Where is the government to defend the old city? Where is the government that demanded the dismantling of the armed brigades?" he said. "America will be defeated in Iraq and the believing Muslims will come here victorious."

In 1996, then-Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat cracked down on Hamas preachers after a series of Hamas suicide bombings in Israel. He monitored them closely and those considered too militant lost their jobs. Kharas lost his position at that time, and only returned to the pulpit last year after Hamas won parliamentary elections.

Kharas said he feared no one and would not change his ways even if it cost him his job. "All my life, I preached and talked about jihad [holy war]," he said...