PALESTINE - Nov 26 - Jailed Leader Barghouthi Urged To Drop Election Bid.

Firebrand uprising leader Marwan Barghouthi comes under pressure from his Fatah faction to drop potentially divisive plans to run for Palestinian president from his Israeli jail cell. Fatah officials said Palestinian cabinet minister Qadoura Fares, a member of the faction, visited Barghouthi in prison to try to dissuade him from challenging it presidential nominee, PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas. There was no immediate word on whether Fares, who said he was carrying a message from Abbas promising Barghouthi, 45, a say in strategic Palestinian decisions, persuaded him to change his mind. Abbas, 69, lacks the charismatic Barghouthi's grassroots popularity but he is favoured as a future peacemaker by Israel and the US. His defeat could deal a blow to any international effort to revive violence-stalled peace efforts. Fares, speaking to Israel Radio before the visit, said Abbas regarded Barghouthi as crucial to Palestinian stability following the death of Pres Yasser Arafat on Nov 11. "(Abbas) asked me to tell Marwan that he is one of the most important pillars of the PA, Fatah and the PLO", Fares said in Hebrew. Fatah officials said on Nov 25 Barghouthi had decided to run in the Jan 9 election, but a formal announcement would be made only after further consultations. Fatah's Central Committee nominated Abbas for president earlier this week and the faction's Revolutionary Council approved the decision on Nov 25. "The door before Marwan is closed now, after the decision of the Fatah Central Committee to nominate (Abbas)", said Hatem Abdel-Qader, a Fatah official and legislator. "If he runs as an independent candidate, Fatah will lose votes to other factions and this also may create divisions inside the movement", Abdel-Qader said. Palestinian political analysts predicted Barghouthi would stand a good chance of winning the ballot, drawing support from mainstream voters as well as from Islamists who oppose Abbas's call to end the uprising. One senior Fatah official said a promise by Abbas "to carry out reforms within Fatah through (internal) elections" could persuade Barghouthi not to run against him. Fatah's pro-Barghouthi "young guard", a generation raised under Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza, has been demanding a stronger voice in a faction dominated by exiles who returned after interim peace deals with Israel in the 1990s. Barghouthi was sentenced in June by an Israeli criminal court to five life terms after it convicted him of involvement in the killings of Israelis. At his trial in Tel Aviv, Barghouthi said he was a political leader with no involvement in violence. He was the main voice of a revolt for an independent Palestinian state after peace negotiations collapsed in 2000 and has long been seen as a potential successor to Arafat. Passionate and articulate, the bearded and diminutive Barghouthi has also advocated peace with Israel, making his case for an end to occupation in near-perfect Hebrew learned during previous jail stints.