The central committee of the Palestinian mainstream Fatah movement decided in Gaza on Thursday that the posts of chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the president of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA)would be merged .

Tayeb Abdel Rahim, member of the committee, read a statementafter the meeting of the Fatah central committee held in Gaza thatit was decided that the chairman of the executive committee of the PLO could also be the president of the PNA.

Mahmoud Abbas, better known as Abu Mazen, replaced late leader Yasser Arafat who passed away in a French hospital on Nov. 11 and became the new PLO chairman.

Abbas is also deputy chairman of the Fatah movement as Farouk Kadoumi, PLO political bureau chief, who is based in Tunis, was named as Fatah movement's chairman.

If Abbas is chosen on Sunday by the Fatah movement to be its candidate for the coming presidential elections due on Jan. 9, he will grip a high possibility of winning the election race since the veteran Palestinian leader is widely seen as the most likely successor to Arafat. If elected, Abbas will then resume the post ofthe PNA president in addition of being the PLO executive committee chairman.

Right after Arafat passed away, Rawhi Fattouh, speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) was named as the temporary president of the PNA for 60 days till the Palestinians elect their president.

The Fatah central committee meeting was attended by Fattouh and Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei who was also nominated as the chief of the council for national security in charge of the seven PNA security apparatuses.

"We are committed to following the principles of late PresidentYasser Arafat till we achieve Palestinian freedom and independence," Rahim added.

The statement added that the Palestinians would continue seeking to achieve "the peace of the brave led by Arafat based on the implementation of the UN Security Council resolutions."The statement also called for bringing about security anddiscipline "to guarantee free voting and free choice" and urged the PLC to enact a new election law that will allow holding legislative elections by mid-2005.

"Fatah completely supports the decisions made by the council fornational security to achieve security and discipline and deal with the issue of weapons chaos and security deterioration," said the statement.

Source: Xinhua