Palestinian PM says early elections "not feasible"

RAMALLAH, West Bank, Aug 16 (Reuters) Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said today that holding early elections is ''not feasible'' given the political situation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Palestinian officials had said yesterday that advisers to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas were looking at options to holding new elections that would limit the participation of the Islamist group Hamas.

Fayyad was appointed prime minister in June by Abbas, who is head of the secular Fatah faction. Abbas sacked a Hamas-led government after the Islamist group seized control of the Gaza Strip during a brief civil war.

''Once there is a political stalemate, the solution is to go back to people. We will do that once it is feasible. Is it feasible now? Obviously not,'' Fayyad said at a news conference in the occupied West Bank, where Fatah remains dominant.

Hamas, which won a parliamentary majority in a January 2006 election, has said it would be unconstitutional for Abbas to call early elections. The group has threatened to block any election effort.

The long-dominant Fatah faction of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO), then led by Yasser Arafat, recognised Israel and dropped its commitment to ''armed struggle'' on signing interim peace accords with Israel in 1993.

Hamas refuses to renounce violence and says it will not recognise Israel as demanded by major Western powers. Hamas leaders have offered a long-term truce with Israel in return for a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza.

Abbas has told Reuters he would decree a change in Palestinian electoral rules that might make it harder for Hamas to maintain the parliamentary majority it won last year.

One of those options could be to bar candidates from Hamas and other groups from participating unless they accepted Palestinian law and previous agreements signed by the PLO.

''Once the elections are held, they will be in the West Bank and Gaza Strip at the same time,'' Fayyad said, casting further doubt on the possibility of elections, given the opposition of Hamas leaders who control Gaza.

Fayyad also denied that Israel and the Palestinians are holding secret discussions on so-called final-status issues that are key to creating a Palestinian State.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert met Abbas on August 6 in the West Bank city of Jericho to discuss the establishment of a Palestinian State.

Olmert expanded the scope of discussions to include ''fundamental issues'', but it was unclear if that referred to any of the main final-status issues of borders and the future of Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees.

Reuters SZ VP0046