MIDDLE EAST:Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas said yesterday he will call early parliamentary and presidential elections in response to what he called last month's "coup" by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
His fiery speech in the West Bank city of Ramallah underlined the bitterness of the rift between the two territories. Aides said he had no firm timetable for a vote - it could be in months, or even not for a year or more. Elections are not due until 2010.
"We will call . . . for early legislative and presidential elections and we will not wait for approval from those sitting over there in Gaza or from those sitting abroad," Mr Abbas told the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO).
Hamas, which won a parliamentary majority in elections last year and routed Mr Abbas's secular, Western-backed Fatah faction in fighting in Gaza a month ago, said it still runs the legitimate Palestinian government and that there could be no new elections if Mr Abbas refuses to negotiate a new national consensus.
Mr Abbas, using uncharacteristically harsh language, said there could be no dialogue with those who staged the "coup" in Gaza unless Hamas agreed to help organise elections.
"Hamas dug their grave with their own nails as a result of the crimes they carried out in Gaza," Mr Abbas said. "They have brought upon themselves their loss of legitimacy." His move came on the eve of a meeting in Lisbon of the Quartet of international powers mediating in the Palestinians' conflict with Israel.
The Quartet, which comprises US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, the UN secretary general and EU and Russian officials, has rallied behind Mr Abbas. The group is expected to send its new envoy, former British prime minister Tony Blair, to visit the region this month.
With Gaza and the West Bank deeply divided, jeopardising Palestinians' hopes of a united state, obstacles to elections are substantial.
A vote only in the West Bank, where Mr Abbas has enjoyed an end to international sanctions since dismissing the Hamas-led government, might entrench the split and could backfire, given the disillusionment with Fatah that helped Hamas win last year's election. A UN official said if the embargo on Gaza persists, its 1.5 million people may require food aid.