RAMALLAH, Nov. 25 (Xinhuanet) -- Jailed Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti has decided to run for the Palestinian presidency as an independent candidate to replace late Yasser Arafat, one of his associates said Thursday.

    "Barghouti has decided to run and he will explain in a statement of his reasons for doing that," said Saad Nimr.

    Barghouti was born in 1958 in the village of Kobber, west of Ramallah in the West Bank.

    He descended from a poor family that was part of the big clan in the West Bank.

    Barghouti received his primary education at schools in Kobberand finished his secondary education in Ramallah.At the age of 18, Barghouti was arrested by the Israeli army forthe first time in his life. He spent five years in jail.After being freed, Barghouti entered the Beir Zeit University in the West Bank, where he got a master's degree in the French-Arabrelations.

    In 1987, he was deported to Jordan by Israel which accused himof leading the first Palestinian Intifada (Uprising).When he was in Jordan, he was an aide to chief of Fatah's armed wing Khalil Al Wazeer.

    In 1994, Barghouti returned to the West Bank after the Oslo Accords were signed between Israel and the Palestinians.In 1996, he was elected as a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, or the parliament.

    Within Fatah, Barghouti was one of the seven senior leaders. He represented the stream of reformists in the movement, calling for holding internal elections and giving a chance for the younger generation to lead.

    Since the outbreak of the second Intifada in September 2000,Barghouti has become more popular among the ordinary Palestinians.Considered as the uprising leader, Barghouti ever stated that the Palestinians would defeat Israel one day.

    On April 15, 2002, Barghouti was detained in Ramallah by the Israeli army during a large-scale military operation code-named the "Defensive Shield".

    In early 2004, he was sentenced five life terms in imprisonment by an Israel court after being convicted of plotting the murder of at least four Israelis and a Greek monk.

    Barghouti's supporters said they were counting on international pressure on Israel to free him.

    Barghouti was married to Fadwa, a lawyer and his cousin. They have four children -- three boys (Qassam, Sharaf and Arab) and one girl (Ruba).

    According to a poll conducted in September on Palestinian leaders' popularity among their own people, Barghouti ranked first with 22 percent respondents supporting him, followed by Sha'bleader Haidar Abdul Shafi and Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar by 12 percent each.

    Current chief of the Palestine Liberation Organization Mahmoud Abbas had a support rate of less than 5 percent. Enditem