Abbas to call election if talks with Hamas fail

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas yesterday said he would press ahead with a January parliamentary and presidential election opposed by the rival Hamas movement if reconciliation efforts failed.

"We are still offering the same proposal, but if it's refused, then the sole alternative is to go to presidential and parliamentary elections," Mr Abbas said, referring to a unity government including his secular Fatah party and Islamist Hamas.

Mr Abbas was speaking at the first meeting of the Palestinian National Council in 13 years.

More than 300 members of the PNC, the top legislative body of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, convened to determine how to replace, whether by appointment or vote, six deceased members of the PLO's 18-member Executive Committee.

Hamas, which won a 2006 parliamentary election and seized control of the Gaza Strip a year later in fighting with Fatah, says it will not accept a new poll in January unless a "package deal" is reached with Mr Abbas's party.