Abbas consolidates West Bank leadership

Moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will consolidate his rule in the West Bank on Friday night by installing a caretaker government that is expected to rule indefinitely, Palestinian officials said.

The caretaker government will replace an emergency Cabinet formed after Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip in mid-June and Abbas dissolved his unity government with the Islamic militant group.

Abbas, suddenly in control only of the West Bank, also declared a state of emergency that ends Friday night.

Nabil Amr, a top aide to Abbas, said the new caretaker government will be headed by Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, who heads the emergency Cabinet, and be made up of the same ministers, with several new additions.

Abbas has been ruling by decree since declaring the state of emergency. He ordered a new term of parliament to start this week to approve the emergency government as required by law, but Hamas boycotted the session.

Azzam al-Ahmed, a lawmaker from Abbas' Fatah movement, said that because neither side can muster a majority in parliament: "This government will continue running the country until the crisis ... is solved."

Dozens of Hamas lawmakers have been arrested by Israel in the past year, giving Fatah a slight majority in the 132-seat parliament even though Hamas won Palestinian elections in 2006. Both sides have charged the other with undermining the Palestinians' nascent democracy.