Transformed Abbas relishes gamble with Hamas

RAMALLAH, West Bank, May 29 (Reuters) Facing the battle of his political career, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has taken the fight to the Hamas government and appears to be loving it.

Abbas has been transformed from the grey man of Palestinian politics since challenging his Islamist rivals to accept a proposal for statehood that implicitly recognises Israel.

He has looked confident, cracked jokes and shown little of the strain that often shadowed him despite taking a high-stakes gamble that could strengthen his position or leave him close to irrelevant.

Yesterday, Abbas even made a rare appearance on the busy streets of the West Bank city of Ramallah in what looked very much like on election campaign stop. He met shopkeepers and then Palestinians wounded in clashes with Israeli troops.

While Abbas complained about a Western aid embargo to try to force Hamas to recognise Israel and renounce violence, the US-backed president also took a dig at the Islamist group that trounced his Fatah movement in January elections.

''As we ask the world how long this situation will continue, we must be frank and ask ourselves: Are we responsible or not?'' he said.

Abbas has given Hamas until the weekend to accept a proposal by prominent Palestinian prisoners in an Israeli jail that calls for a state alongside Israel.

If Hamas, formally committed to destroying Israel, does not accept the proposal by then, Abbas will call a referendum in July.

His aides believe he can win.

''The prisoners' initiative has given him the opportunity to put Hamas in a difficult situation, to force them into a corner,'' said Palestinian political analyst George Giacaman.

Abbas, a moderate who was elected by a landslide in early 2005 in a ballot that Hamas did not contest, has clearly caught the militant group off guard.

CHALLENGE But now comes the hard part for a president who only last week was labelled powerless by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert -- carrying out his threat.

Hamas appears close to formally rejecting the proposal and the referendum. That would ratchet up tensions with Fatah in the wake of clashes in Gaza between the two groups.

The government has also questioned under what legal basis Abbas could call a referendum, so soon after elections. Hamas won those as much on the basis of its anti-corruption credentials as its fight to eliminate Israel.

Some analysts believe Abbas wants to sack the government to remove the crippling international sanctions imposed on the Palestinian Authority and to clear him to pursue his plan for negotiations with Israel.

''I think he knows that at some point he has to intervene, and the only intervention he can undertake is to disband the government,'' said Palestinian political analyst Ali Jarbawi.

''(The referendum) is a risk, but it is a calculated risk.'' A senior Palestinian official who would be involved in preparing for any referendum said Abbas was determined to go ahead even if Hamas formally rejects the prisoners' plan.

Abbas is a survivor of decades of struggle for a Palestinian state and played an instrumental role in 1993 interim peace accords with Israel, but he cuts a very different figure to his predecessor Yasser Arafat.

Where Arafat favoured military uniforms and was ever the showman, Abbas dresses in sober business suits and largely keeps in the background.

Abbas lost out to Arafat in a battle for power in 2003 and resigned as prime minister -- a decision that some analysts believe has demonstrated his readiness to refuse to give in under pressure.

''He has shown in the past he can be decisive,'' said Giacaman.

''The problem is now with Hamas because it seems that they do not have many options.'' REUTERS SHB PM1522