Abbas said he went to Gaza despite knowing of the plot against him [AFP]

Although largely inactive in recent years, the PLO considers itself the sole representative of the Palestinian people.

The PLO body also asked Abbas to prepare for new presidential and legislative elections, and to change the electoral system.

But Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri dismissed the PLO's decisions as "illegal and illegitimate".

Hamas has said it considers new voting as theft of its 2006 election victory and would not permit it in Gaza.

Abu Zuhri hinted that fighters would also disrupt balloting in the West Bank.

"I think they [Abbas and his advisers] must learn from the Gaza lesson," he said. "They didn't catch [in time] what happened in Gaza, and they must be awake before paying a high price elsewhere due to their policies," he said.

Abbas ahead

In a poll published on Thursday by the independent Palestinian Centre for Policy and Survey Research, three-quarters of Palestinians said they favour early elections.

The poll among 1,270 Palestinians also indicated that Abbas only had a narrow lead over Ismail Haniya, the deposed prime minister from Hamas, at 49 per cent to 42 per cent.

The PLO Central Council also called for dissolving all militias, presumably including the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, which is linked to Fatah.

But this appeared to be largely lip service to blunt criticism that Abbas outlawed the Hamas forces but did not move against his own.