Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is in Egypt today for crisis talks about restoring order at the breached Gaza border.
Hamas Islamists, who seized control of Gaza in June after routing Abbas's secular Fatah forces, blasted open the Egyptian border last week in defiance of an Israeli blockade, letting Gazans pour into Egypt to stock up on goods in short supply.
Abbas, who met Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and other officials, has already won US, European and Arab backing to take control of the Rafah crossing, to the exclusion of Hamas.
However, Hamas officials are also expected to meet Egyptian officials today.
Hamas will make the case that it could manage the Rafah crossing itself. It allowed television cameras and reporters into the terminal to watch Zahar and other Hamas leaders get their passports stamped by Hamas border guards.
Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said Hamas "does not accept anything less than a key role in the Rafah crossing".
Shunned by the West for refusing to renounce violence against Israel after winning Palestinian elections two years ago, Hamas signalled it could prevent Egypt from re-sealing the border unless its own authority at the border was recognised.
"Talking about a partial role contradicts reality," said senior Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar as he crossed through the Rafah border terminal into Egypt to take part in talks on the future of the border.
"The reality is that there is a legitimate government. We will not give up our legitimacy to anybody," he said.
It is unclear how Abbas, the Fatah leader, would be able to exert control over Rafah given opposition from Hamas, whose forces have command on the ground.
Meanwhile, Egyptian state media reported that Egypt was planning to take steps shortly to start to close the border.
One state-run newspaper said Egypt planned to close the border on Thursday, and the flagship al-Ahram paper said the last opportunity for Gazans to return home would be at the start of next week.