AIN EL-HELWEH, Lebanon (AFP) - Three Palestinians have been killed after an argument between rival factions in a refugee camp in south Lebanon turned violent, a Palestinian official said on Sunday.

The fighting broke out late on Saturday in Ain el-Helweh camp, the largest in Lebanon, between Islamist group Jund al-Sham and a joint force of Palestinian factions which polices the camp.

Those shot dead were Walid Sallum, an Islamist member of a committee formed to resolve differences between rival factions, a Jund al-Sham leader, Shehade Jawhar, and Abed Jawali, a member of the same group.

Jawhar, who was wanted in Lebanon for murder and who had fought in Iraq, died on Sunday from gunshot wounds, the Palestinian official told AFP.

The funerals of the three men took place under heavy Lebanese army security in Taamir, a district adjoining the camp where tensions remained high but efforts were under way to prevent a further outbreak of violence.

The factional force tasked with security is dominated by the Palestine Liberation Organisation, of which Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah movement is a principal member.

"All the parties are committed to preventing the camp from sliding into violence," the force's head, Munir Maqdah, told AFP.

Last year, more than 400 people were killed in a battle last summer in the Nahr al-Bared camp in northern Lebanon before the Lebanese army expelled Islamists holed up in the camp.

Ain el-Helweh, near the southern port city of Sidon, has in recent months become the theatre of clashes between Fatah and Jund al-Sham, a Sunni group comprising mainly Lebanese without a clear hierarchy.

Members of extremist groups believed to have links with Al-Qaeda have settled in Lebanon's Palestinian refugee camps, especially in Ain el-Helweh, which has a population of more than 45,000.

The camps are outside the control of Lebanese authorities, with Palestinian factions in charge of security.

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