Acting Palestinian Authority chief Mahmud Abbas announces presidential and legislative elections will be held on Jan. 24 in both the West Bank and the Gaza strip.

The announcement came in a Friday statement by Abbas' office, inviting the Palestinian people in Jerusalem (Al-Quds), the West Bank and the Hamas-run Gaza Strip to "take part in free and direct presidential and legislative elections on Sunday January 24, 2010."

Hamas has refused to sign the reconciliation deal due to serious issues missing in the agreement, and urged further talks on the reservations it still has with Egypt.

The decree is viewed to be aimed at rushing the rival Hamas movement into signing a Cairo-brokered unity deal with the Fatah faction led by Abbas, whose presidential term expired in early 2009.

In the last parliamentary elections in January 2006, Hamas won a sweeping victory over Fatah.

However, the Western-backed Fatah later launched a coup against the democratically elected Hamas government and established its own rule based in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

The move prompted Hamas to limit its rule to the Gaza Strip under mounting pressure from the US and Europe to step down, and despite a crippling blockade on the populated coastal sliver.

MRS/HGH