RAMALLAH, Dec. 24 (Xinhuanet) -- Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei withdrew his candidacy in protest against internal Fatah disputes arising from the parliamentary election candidate lists, an election official said on Saturday.

    Jamal Mheisen, also Fatah's election coordinator in the West Bank, said Qurei, together with Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) Speaker Rawhi Fattouh, preferred to give up candidacy on the Fatah list for the Jan. 25 legislative elections.

    Mheisen told Palestinian radio Voice of Palestine that the two officials supported efforts to merge Fatah's two candidate lists presented to the Central Elections Committee (CEC) to run in the elections.

    A younger generation of Fatah, including jailed Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti and former civilian affairs minister Mahmmed Dahlan, submitted its own candidate list earlier this month to compete with the official Fatah list in the upcoming parliamentary elections, triggering internal disputes.

    Qurei and Fattouh tendered their resignations to President Mahmoud Abbas Friday afternoon, two days after intense negotiations within the Fatah party to unite the two competing lists failed to yield a major breakthrough.

    "Contacts are still being held with all Fatah leadership including the prisoners" on the matter, Mheisen added.

    Meanwhile, official sources close to Qurei and Fattouh said their resignations also came in protest against a decision by the CEC to ban former members of the PLC, Fatah revolutionary council members, central committee members and Palestinian ministers from running in nation-wide election lists.

    The decision allows these individuals only to run on regional lists.

    Fifty percent of the 132-seat parliament will be elected through constituencies and the other half through party lists. Enditem