Abbas convenes PLO body to back emergency cabinet

RAMALLAH, West Bank, June 20 (Reuters) President Mahmoud Abbas summoned the Palestine Liberation Organisation's central council today in a bid to boost the legitimacy of his newly formed emergency cabinet.

Abbas wants the 129-member Palestine Central Council to supersede the Hamas-dominated Palestinian legislature, a move that could allow him to keep in place the government he formed after Hamas's violent takeover of Gaza last week, analysts said.

The parliament has ceased functioning since Israel's arrest of dozens of Hamas lawmakers and the latest violence between Abbas's secular Fatah and the Islamist Hamas factions.

Palestinian officials said the PLO council, which last met in 2003 and where Hamas is not represented, is expected to express support for Abbas's new emergency government during its two day session in the West Bank town of Ramallah.

''One of the main issues of discussion will be to reiterate the legitimacy of the decisions taken by President Abbas with regard to the bloody coup by Hamas,'' council member Ahmad Majdalani told Reuters.

The council will also debate the possibility of moving up a presidential election in addition to a parliamentary poll now scheduled for 2010, said Saleh Rafat, another member.

The Western-backed Abbas said last week when he formed the emergency cabinet that he hoped to lay the groundwork for new elections but did not say when they could be held.

Hamas has condemned Abbas's new cabinet and continues to consider a three-month-old unity coalition headed by Ismail Haniyeh as the legitimate Palestinian government, although a third of its ministers have withdrawn their support.

Reuters AK GC1705