JERUSALEM – Hamas angrily rejected a warning by the Palestinian Arab leader yesterday that he could dismiss its month-old government, threatening to scrap a truce with Israel if he does.

The public warning heightened tensions between the Islamic terrorist group and Mahmoud Abbas, who heads the Fatah Party. Hamas defeated Fatah in January parliamentary elections. Mr. Abbas, elected separately, has been trying to trim the powers of the new Cabinet.

In an interview broadcast yesterday on CNN-Turk, Mr. Abbas said Hamas must recognize Israel and talk peace to avert an economic catastrophe because of Western sanctions.

Mr. Abbas favors peace talks, but Hamas rejects the presence of a Jewish state in the Middle East. Hamas also refuses to renounce violence or accept interim Palestinian-Israeli peace accords – basic international demands.

The extreme Hamas stance has harmed Palestinian Arabs’ world standing. More critically, it has led to a cutback in vital foreign aid, leaving Hamas unable to pay 165,000 public workers, the largest sector in the limping Palestinian Arab economy, including about 80,000 in the security forces, many loyal to Fatah.

The current paychecks are already three weeks late, and next week another monthly salary is due, with no relief in sight, reinforcing Mr. Abbas’s warning.

“The constitution gives me clear and definite authority to remove a government from power, but I don’t want to use this authority. Everyone should know that by law this power is in my hands,” Mr. Abbas said in the interview with CNN-Turk, recorded before he arrived in Turkey on Sunday.

Hamas reacted angrily, threatening to call off a 15-month truce brokered by Mr. Abbas that greatly reduced Israeli-Palestinian violence after five years of bloodshed.

A senior Hamas official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press, said the group would “not leave in silence.”

“We will not participate in any new election and we will go underground as we did before and we will not adhere to any commitments, any truce, by anyone,” he said.

An Israeli government spokesman, Raanan Gissin, dismissed the Hamas threat, saying the terrorist group had never recognized the truce. Although it suspended its suicide bombing campaign after the cease-fire was reached, Hamas was in league with other groups that did attack Israel, Mr. Gissin charged, “and it never renounced terrorism.”

A spokesman for the Hamas-led government, Ghazi Hamad, said Mr. Abbas should not have warned Hamas he could disband the government, sworn in on March 29, so early in its tenure.

“We expect from President Abbas to protect his government and not to make such declarations,” Mr. Hamad said in an interview from Gaza City.

Aides to Mr. Abbas said his warning was directed at Khaled Mashaal, the Hamas leader who accused the Palestinian president last week of “plotting” against the militant group. Mr. Mashaal’s accusation set off clashes and protests over the weekend.

The West, which provides the Palestinian Arabs with roughly $1 billion in annual aid, has cut off some of that funding to protest Hamas’ refusal to moderate. Palestinian Arab officials say American pressure on international banks has kept Arab governments’ money from reaching the Hamas government.

Israel has also squeezed the Palestinian Arabs financially by withholding monthly transfers of some $55 million in taxes it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority.

Mr. Abbas does not plan to dissolve the government soon and will do so only if the economic situation in the territories becomes catastrophic, the aides said.

Under Palestinian Arab law, if Mr. Abbas dissolves the government, he would ask someone else to try to form a Cabinet, which would need approval from the Hamas-dominated legislature. Once Mr. Abbas determines there is a stalemate, he has the authority to order new elections.