President Mahmoud Abbas called today for fresh Palestinian parliamentary and presidential elections, raising the stakes after days of internal violence that has renewed fears of civil war.
Mr Abbas said polls should be held at the earliest opportunity, but appeared to leave the door open to his Hamas rivals by saying efforts should be made to form a unity government that could lift Western sanctions on the Palestinian administration.
"I have decided to call for presidential and parliamentary election ... I have decided to call for early elections," Mr Abbas said in a speech broadcast live on Palestine TV.
Hamas, the militant Islamist group that controls the Palestinian government, accused Mr Abbas of launching a coup.
"This is a real coup against the democratically elected government," senior Hamas lawmaker Mushir al-Masri told Reuters in the Gaza Strip.
A senior Mr Abbas aide, Saeb Erekat, said elections could not be held before the middle of next year for legal and technical reasons. He said Abbas first had to issue a presidential decree to provide a framework for the early polls. After that, voter rolls would need some 90 days to be updated.
Mr Abbas had earlier in his speech called for a political solution to resolve the crisis but made clear he had the right to sack the government.
Internal tensions are at their worst in a decade after months of talks between Hamas and Abbas's Fatah movement on forging a unity government foundered.
"The crisis is getting worse," Mr Abbas said in his speech, but vowed to ensure that civil war did not break out.
In recent violence, his forces wounded 32 Hamas supporters in Ramallah yesterday when they fired on protesters. Gunbattles between the factions also erupted in Gaza.
Hamas surprised Fatah by winning parliamentary elections in January. Mr Abbas was elected separately in early 2005 in a presidential poll that Hamas did not contest.
The Palestinian basic law, which acts as a constitution, has no provision for calling early elections.
Fatah officials say Mr Abbas can do so by issuing a presidential decree. Hamas says that would be illegal.