MIDDLE EAST:Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad said yesterday that holding early elections was "not feasible" given the political situation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Palestinian officials had said on Wednesday that advisers to Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas were looking at options to hold new elections which would limit the participation of the Islamist group Hamas.
Mr Fayyad was appointed prime minister in June by Mr Abbas, who is head of the secular Fatah faction. Mr Abbas sacked a Hamas-led government after the Islamist group seized control of the Gaza Strip during a brief civil war.
"Once there is a political stalemate, the solution is to go back to [ the] people. We will do that once it is feasible. Is it feasible now? Obviously not," Mr Fayyad said.
Hamas, which won a parliamentary majority in January 2006, has said that it would be unconstitutional for Mr Abbas to call early elections. The group has threatened to block any election effort.
The long-dominant Fatah faction of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO), then led by Yasser Arafat, recognised Israel and dropped its commitment to "armed struggle" on signing interim peace accords with Israel in 1993.
Hamas refuses to renounce violence and says that it will not recognise Israel. Its leaders have offered a long-term truce with Israel in return for a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza.
Mr Abbas has said that he wants to change Palestinian electoral rules to make it harder for Hamas to maintain the parliamentary majority it won last year. One option could be to bar candidates from Hamas and other groups from participating unless they accepted Palestinian law and previous agreements signed by the PLO.