Fatah extends stormy conference

PA President Mahmoud Abbas in front of Yasser Arafat poster at Fatah conference

Fatah is widely criticised as corrupt and ineffective

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction's first congress for 20 years has been extended amid rows between rival camps.

The meeting, which was originally scheduled to last three days, will go on for at least an extra day.

A spokesman described the meetings as "stormy", as delegates argued over voting procedures.

Younger members want to wrest more control from older leaders seen as corrupt and ineffective.

Participants have been divided over the process for voting in new members of Fatah's powerful 21-member central committee.

Al Jazeera English - Middle East - Co-founder accuses Fatah of graft: "senior figure in the Palestinian Fatah movement has accused the party's leadership in the West Bank of getting rich at the expense of their own people.

Farouk Kaddoumi, one of the founders of Fatah, made the claims in a statement released before more than 2,000 Fatah delegates began a second day of meetings at the party's conference in the West Bank town of Bethlehem on Wednesday.

'Have you ever heard in history about revolutionary leaders who possess, along with their sons, millions of dollars and sterling pounds?' he asked in the statement released to media organisations.

Kaddoumi also criticised the Palestinian leadership for travelling in private jets and accused them of collecting taxes 'for their own pocket'.

Fatah is expected to elect a new central committee and a ruling council, in the hope of giving more of a say to a younger generation that grew up fighting Israel's occupation of the West Bank.

Kaddoumi, who lives in exile in Tunisia, refused to attend Fatah's first conference in 20 years because it was being held with the West Bank still under Israeli occupation."