Special report: Internal situation in Palestine

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas attends a meeting in his office in the West Bank city of Ramallah Dec. 9, 2006.(Xinhua Photo/Reuters) Photo Gallery >>>

    RAMALLAH, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian sources said Saturday that President Mahmoud Abbas is ready to call early elections to end a political impasse with the governing Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) if Hamas continues to refuse a compromise.

    Abbas voiced his readiness at a meeting of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)'s powerful executive committee, said the sources who attended the meeting, adding the Palestinian leader also plans to deliver a formal nationwide speech next week.

    According to the sources, Abbas told the PLO meeting that he would dismiss the parliament and call early elections to end the political impasse with Hamas, but left the door open to reaching a compromise with Hamas.

    Earlier on Saturday, media reports said that Abbas is to head a PLO meeting on Saturday in Ramallah to set a date for his prospective speech on the political crisis.

    Sources at Abbas' office told Palestinian Ramattan news agency that the Palestinian President may deliver his speech on Sunday.

    It is expected that Abbas, who is also the chief of Fatah movement, to talk about the reasons that blocked the formation of a unity government that was sought to lift embargo by the West on the current Hamas administration.

    Mutual talks between Fatah and Hamas to form a coalition have reached a dead end after controversy on sharing major portfolios.

    Ayman Daraghma, a Hamas lawmaker, told Voice of Palestine radio Saturday that his movement was willing to resume the inter-Palestinian talks to form the national unity government.

    However, Daraghma said the Hamas-led government would stay in power if the proposed unity government is not formed according to the Prisoners' Document of National Accordance.

    The document calls for an Israeli withdrawal to the 1967 borders and the creation of an independent statehood lives alongside Israel inside these borders.