Beirut  - Thousands of Palestinians mourned on Wednesday Kamal Medhat, the Palestine Liberation Organisation official who was killed in a southern-Lebanon car bombing on Monday.

Followers of rival Palestinian factions from Fatah and Hamas participated in the mass funeral of Kamal Medhat, the PLO's number two in Lebanon, who was killed Monday in a roadside bombing outside the Mieh Mieh Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon along with three of his bodyguards.

The crowd walked along the road leading to the Palestinian "Martyrs" cemetery on the outskirts of Beirut, while carrying the coffin of Mehdat and the three bodyguards.

PLO guards headed the procession chanting revolutionary songs as others carried portraits of the four victims.

Palestinian and Lebanese women lined the streets ululating and throwing rice, a sign of mourning, while armed men fired shots into the air.

At the cemetery, Abbas Zaki, PLO representative in Lebanon said, "those behind the killing wanted to destroy the unity between Palestinians."

Medhat was considered a major mediator working to end the rift between Fatah - the faction led by Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas - and the Hamas movement.

Medhat, 58, was a former close aide to the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and a former intelligence chief for Fatah in the Ain el-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp.

Meawhile, Munir Makdah, a PLO military official in Ain el Hiwleh camp said there are "many threats recorded in documents and voice recordings, which are directed against Palestinian representative in Lebanon Abbas Zaki, and his deputy Kamal Medhat," stressing that "these threats came from parties which have relations with the Israeli enemy."

Makdah said that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas might send an investigation committee to Lebanon to coordinate with the Lebanese authorities in the investigation of Medhat's assassination. (dpa)