PALESTINE - Dec 15 - Abbas's Fatah Rivals Enter A Slate For Elections.

The divisions within the main Palestinian faction, Fatah, breaks sharply into the open as the Palestinian Pres Mahmoud Abbas, threatens to resign unless a rival slate of younger Fatah members for the Jan. 25 legislative elections is withdrawn. Any split in Fatah would probably hurt its performance and help its main rival, the Islamic militant group Hamas, which is running in legislative elections for the first time. The rival slate, registered just before the deadline of midnight, is headed by Marwan Barghouti, a leader of the second intifada who is serving five consecutive life sentences in an Israeli prison. Barghouti, who is a popular symbol to many Palestinians of resistance to Israel, is also the leader of the official Fatah slate - a compromise made by Abbas in a vain attempt to avoid a split. But more important, other major Fatah leaders in their 40s have joined Barghouti's slate, including Muhammad Dahlan, a power in Gaza who co-ordinated the response to the Israeli withdrawal for Abbas, and Jibril Rajoub, a power in the West Bank who has been a security adviser to Abbas. Abbas spoke on the telephone during the night to Barghouti, who agreed to further discussions and reportedly said he would not be responsible for Fatah's collapse. Barghouti's challenge is reminiscent of his tactics a year ago, when he vowed to run from prison for President against Abbas, then changed his mind in return for promises of political reform. But many feel there has been little political reform under Abbas, who has remained loyal to older leaders close to Yasser Arafat, who died a year ago. The Barghouti slate, known as Al Mustaqbal, The Future, is made up of younger members of Fatah who grew up in the Palestinian territories under Israeli rule and who did not go into exile with Arafat. They have been prisoners in Israeli jails (many of them speak Hebrew) and have been critics of the older associates of Arafat who returned with him from Tunisia in 1994, including Abbas and the PM Ahmad Qurei. The slate includes Barghouti allies and such officials as Qadura Fares; the Palestinian minister for prisoner affairs, Sufian Abu Zaida; and a militant with the Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades, Nasser Jouma. Negotiations were under way on Dec 15 to rework Fatah's slate of 66 candidates to put more younger activists from the Barghouti list in higher positions, to improve their chances of election. Palestinians also voted on Dec 15 in a fourth round of municipal elections in which Hamas candidates are running and are likely to do well. The elections for Parliament in January are the first since 1996. Voters will cast one vote for a party list and another for a local candidate of their choice. Half the 132 seats will be allocated from the party lists and half from constituency elections. More than 400 candidates registered for the constituency voting and 12 lists were registered, including a technocratic independent list headed by Salam Fayyad, the FM, and Hanan Ashrawi, a legislator and educator. Some Palestinian analysts viewed the Barghouti move as a tactic to force changes on Abbas and predicted that a single Fatah list would result. But Fares said on Israel Radio that "it's too late" and that Abbas and his allies had rejected the results of Fatah primaries and "arranged for themselves places at the top of the list in an unacceptable manner", which he compared to "the old system of masters and slaves". Fares predicted that the two Fatah groups would join forces in a coalition government. But Khaled Duzdar, an analyst at the Israel Palestine Center for Research and Information, thought that it was more likely that Abbas would adjust the Fatah list to incorporate Barghouti's group. "I think it's a negotiating tactic to alter the Fatah list", Duzdar said. "At least I hope so. But it's also an important moment, displaying the sharp conflicts inside Fatah. "A year after Arafat died, nothing has changed - there's a focus on personalities, no political reform, no security reform or law enforcement, no reinvigoration of the apparatus - only promises". The challenge is aimed at Abbas, Duzdar said: Barghouti is not alone. There are a lot of younger people on the outside who see the old guard is still dominating Fatah. They thought they would have a part in the current government, but didn't, and they want a serious partnership in the coming government". At stake, Duzdar said, is "the whole Fatah movement". The political confusion, financial mismanagement and the failure to rein in militant groups, including Fatah's own Al Aksa brigades, "only helps Hamas" and will also help PM Ariel Sharon in the Israeli elections on Mar 28, Duzdar said. In a poll of Palestinians finished on Dec. 8, the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research found Fatah receiving about 50% of the vote and Hamas 32 percent, with a 3% margin of error. About 62% expressed satisfaction with Abbas's performance, but favoured Barghouti as a potential vice Pres or PM. The Bush Administration is trying to help Abbas by pressing Israel to deliver on promises to ease movement out of Gaza for goods and people, including an Israeli-monitored bus service between Gaza and the West Bank that was supposed to start on Dec 15. The Israeli defense minister, Shaul Mofaz, said the service would be delayed beyond next week because of continuing Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel from Gaza and a suicide bombing in Netanya last week that killed five people. One of four Qassam rockets fired from Gaza on Dec 15 landed on the outskirts of the Israeli city of Ashkelon. American officials have pushed Israel not to delay the bus convoys, which were arranged after the intervention of State Sec Condoleezza Rice. But Israel pointed to what it claimed was another planned attack by Palestinians aimed at the main Karni crossing for goods. The Israeli Army said it fired a rocket Dec 14 at a car in Gaza that was filled with explosives, killing three militants inside. They, with the help of Palestinian police at Karni, the army asserted, were planning to blow up the car at the crossing - the main outlet for Palestinian produce to the world. Rice has demanded that the Israelis keep the Erez and Karni crossings open. But the deputy defense minister, Zeev Boim, said that the Americans needed to pressure the Palestinians to stop their attacks. "There is American pressure", Boim told Israel Radio. "But we have to withstand this pressure and make it clear that the right address for this pressure is not Israel, but rather the Palestinian Authority".