Palestinian lawmakers fail to ratify government

By Wafa Amr

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad had to abandon his attempt to present his government for a confidence vote on Sunday when his own supporters boycotted the session over a dispute with Hamas.

Citing the continued deadlock, Abbas plans to issue decrees this week calling for early parliamentary and presidential elections over objections from Hamas, which won parliamentary polls last year.

"I wanted to present my government to the legislative council (parliament) in line with the law, but apparently it has failed to implement this constitutional duty," Fayyad said when lawmakers dispersed without convening.

Sunday's boycott was led by Fatah and other factions which support Fayyad but dispute the legality of Islamist Hamas's call for the session to be held.

Abbas's secular Fatah faction and Hamas Islamists, who seized control of the Gaza Strip in a bloody takeover last month, have taken boycotted each other's attempts to hold legislative sessions, preventing the body from gathering 67 members to form a quorum.

ARRESTS

Hamas won a majority of the seats in parliament in the January 2006 election, but Israel has arrested about half of the group's 74 legislators and it can no longer assemble a majority.

Abbas has seized on the parliament's inability to function as legal grounds for ruling by decree since Gaza's takeover. Abbas appointed Fayyad's government without lawmakers' approval after sacking Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas and his cabinet last month.