MIDDLE EAST: President Bush has called for change in the Palestinian leadership dominated for decades by Mr Yasser Arafat. Palestinian officials have replied that the world could not dictate who leads the Palestinian people, but there are five potential successors to the Palestinian president.
Mr Marwan Barghouthi is general secretary of Mr Arafat's Fatah movement in the West Bank. His popularity has soared since Israel arrested him in April on suspicion of orchestrating attacks on Israeli civilians by militant factions.
Mr Barghouthi, the son of a West Bank farmer, was born in 1959. He has denied involvement in militant violence, insisting his leadership role in the 21-month-old Palestinian uprising has been solely political.
Schooled in Hebrew during earlier spells in Israeli jails, Mr Barghouthi has been a charismatic figure on the Palestinian "street" in the uprising. He was a Fatah field leader during a revolt in the late 1980s when he was deported by Israel. He struck a chord with ordinary Palestinians by appearing often at demonstrations, funerals and in the Arab press to express a grassroots yearning for the end of 35 years of Israeli occupation.
Israel has threatened to put Mr Barghouthi on trial but other options it is reportedly considering include expulsion.
Mr Mohammed Dahlan was the head of the Preventive Security Service in the Gaza Strip until he resigned this month to become the powerful senior security adviser to Mr Arafat in a cabinet shuffle.
Born in 1961, Mr Dahlan has represented Palestinians in security negotiations with Israel and analysts say he is regarded by Israel and the US as a reliable Palestinian peace partner. However, the US and Israeli favour he has gained, together with a reputation for high-living, have tarnished his image among militants and ordinary Palestinians.
Mr Dahlan and his main rival, the West Bank Preventive Security chief, Mr Jibril Rajoub, are the closest thing the Palestinian Authority has to military commanders in the absence of an army in areas under self-rule since the 1993 interim peace deals.
Mr Dahlan was a student leader in the first Intifada and was also deported. He continued to orchestrate protesters from exile in Tunis, where he won Mr Arafat's confidence. Mr Dahlan is seen as close to Mr Arafat but angered him recently by voicing dismay over incoherent policy during this uprising.
Mr Jibril Rajoub, who was born in 1953, earned his reputation as a top street fighter in the first Intifada, which landed him in Israeli jails for years followed by deportation to Lebanon.
He later become Preventive Security chief in the West Bank. In recent weeks, however, questions have been raised about his decision to leave his compound hours just before it came under Israeli army siege in April. The Israelis arrested a number of Palestinian militants who had been besieged there.
Mr Rajoub learned to speak Hebrew in Israeli jails and helped to co-ordinate the first Intifada against Israeli occupation during his time in exile in Tunis. He has been a negotiator on security issues with the Israelis under US mediation and has been frequently interviewed by Israeli media during the present Intifada.
Mr Ahmed Korei (65), also known as Abu Ala, was one of three PLO figures who met Israelis secretly in Norway to hammer out the Oslo accords that brought the first interim peace agreement in 1993. He has been Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council since 1996. Earlier, he ran Samed, the industrial and investment fund which for years underpinned the PLO's finances.
Mr Korei is from a wealthy family in Abu Dis, near Jerusalem. He is not popular among ordinary Palestinians. He gave up a banking career in 1968 to join Fatah.
Mr Mahmoud Abbas (67), also known as Abu Mazen, was the man who signed the 1993 peace accord with Israel. He was an architect of the agreement and his long contacts with left-wing Israelis won him a reputation as a PLO dove.
He commands respect among Palestinian officials, in the US, Israel and the Arab world as the brains behind the PLO, but he has little credibility among ordinary Palestinians.
Mr Abbas was forced to flee to Syria with his family when the state of Israel was created in 1948. He joined Mr Arafat's Fatah faction in 1965. A member since 1980 of the PLO's Executive Committee, he was elected secretary general in 1996.