Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas's chances of winning a presidential election to replace Yasser Arafat appeared to be sealed after his main rival Marwan Barghouthi pulled out of the race.
Mr Abbas is now the clear front-runner in next month's election after Barghouthi gave into pressure from Fatah to pull out of the race to allow its own candidate, Mr Abbas, to replace Mr Arafat who died of an undisclosed illness at a French hospital.
Barghouthi's withdrawal ends a bid that threatened to undermine Mr Abbas, a US-favoured veteran leader who is expected to revive talks that foundered before the uprising started in 2000.
In the letter from his cell to announce that he was withdrawing, Barghouthi called |Mr Abbas "a dear and good friend."
Barghouthi, a charismatic grassroots leader serving five life terms in an Israeli prison for orchestrating attacks, had more street appeal than Mr Abbas, the official nominee of their Fatah movement. The two were neck-and-neck in polls.
Even if Barghouthi had failed to win, a good enough showing could have discredited Mr Abbas - especially when it came to trying to end violence and bring the militant factions under control.