Acting Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas says he will stay in office until the next vote, though he would not run for re-election.

Abbas said on Wednesday that he plans to stay on in his post until the next election is held and that he would be ready to hold the vote as soon as consensus was reached with Hamas, Reuters reported.

"If there will be any consensus between us and Hamas after one month or two months, we are ready ... to conduct the elections immediately."

He said Palestinian authorities were planning for a new election, which he confirmed last week would be postponed from the scheduled date of January 24.

"At any time we have the election I will go away and will not run," he added.

The Central Election Commission this month announced it had advised Abbas to put off the election because Hamas rejected the decree as an "illegal and unconstitutional step".

The movement said it would not accept a new poll unless a "package deal" was reached with Abbas's Fatah party.

The two factions have so far failed to agree on how the composition of a unity government would be.

Hamas and Fatah have been at odds since Hamas came to power in the 2006 general elections. Differences between the two Palestinian groups reached its peak in June 2007 when Hamas took over the Gaza Strip in a bid to "foil a coup plot" by some Fatah elements.

Abbas in response sacked the Hamas government and set up a parallel cabinet in Ramallah.

SB/SS/RE