Ramallah - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas warned Iran Wednesday against "widening" Palestinian divisions by meddling in internal Palestinian affairs.

"Iran must not intervene in the internal Palestinian affairs," he told a news conference with the visiting US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in Ramallah.

"You are widening our divisions, not helping us," he told Tehran.

Iran is holding a conference in support of the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian territory controlled by Abbas' bitter rival, the Islamic Hamas movement.

The conference is seen a counterpoint to the international donors meeting that took place in Egypt on Monday, which pledged more than 4 billion dollars for Gaza reconstruction, and which renewed recognition of Abbas as the legal Gaza ruler.

Hamas seized control of the coastal enclave in June 2007, in one week of bloody violence in which it routed forces loyal to Abbas.

Abbas responded by pulling his Fatah party out of a unity government, and dismissing Hamas leader Ismail Haniya from his post as prime minister.

Clinton, making her first visit to Ramallah as Washington's top diplomat, renewed US support for Abbas, saying the West Bank-based acting government of Salam Fayyad, who Abbas appointed after the Gaza takeover, was "the only legitimate government for the Palestinians." (dpa)