Abbas Prepares for New Palestinian Elections

The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, today said he would shortly issue decrees for new parliamentary and presidential elections, despite the strong opposition of Hamas.

Mr Abbas made the announcement ahead of a gathering of the Palestine Liberation Organization's powerful central council. The council was expected to call for early elections as a way of breaking a political deadlock between Fatah, backed by the west, and the Islamist group Hamas.

The Palestinians have effectively had two governments since Hamas seized control of Gaza in June. While Hamas consolidated its hold on Gaza, Mr Abbas formed an emergency government led by an economist, Salam Fayyad, based in the West Bank.

If the elections are a repeat of the 2006 parliamentary elections, the Palestinian territories will remain deeply divided. Fed up with endemic corruption under Fatah, Palestinians voted overwhelmingly for Hamas in January last year.

Hamas surprised everybody - including itself - by sweeping to victory. The movement captured 74 seats in the 132-member parliament, although since then 39 Hamas MPs from the West Bank have been detained in Israeli jails without charge.

Hamas yesterday reiterated its opposition to new elections, saying it was being robbed of last year's victory.

Sami Abu Zuhri, the movement's spokesman in Gaza, said in a statement that "the law doesn't enable Abbas to hold early elections, and also there is no national consensus on holding the elections".

He called once again for an unconditional dialog between Hamas and Fatah leaders to try to break the impasse.

Since the violent break between Fatah and Hamas, Israel and the west have taken various steps to bolster Mr Abbas and keep Hamas politically isolated.

Israel has released some of the taxes it collects on behalf of the Palestinians to the new emergency government. It has also promised to release 250 Palestinian prisoners.

Israel and the west are banking on hopes that support for Mr Abbas and Fatah will grow as Palestinians see improvement in their lives on the West Bank.

As part of this strategy, the US president, George Bush, this week called for an international peace conference for the Middle East in the autumn. But the idea has met with little enthusiasm from Israel and others in the region. With just 18 months left in the White House and his political standing at rock bottom, Mr Bush's ability to bang heads together is much diminished.