Mahmoud Abbas will not seek re-election as Palestinian president

The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, announced tonight his surprise decision not to run in next year's presidential election in frustration at the lack of progress in resuming peace talks with Israel.

Abbas, who became president nearly five years ago, had been expected to seek re-election, despite the deep factional divisions among his own people and the deadlock in returning to peace talks. But he said the Palestinians were "at a crossroads".

"I do not want to run for the coming presidential elections," he said in a 15-minute speech on national television in which he summed up his achievements and his commitment to a negotiated two-state peace agreement. "This is not some kind of compromise or a manoeuvre," he added.

Abbas told his Fatah party of his decision on yesterday and the PLO leadership today. Both urged him to reconsider. The Egyptian and Israeli presidents, as well as the Jordanian king, all called to urge him to stay on.

It puts the Palestinians at a crucial juncture. Abbas was elected on a platform of negotiations towards a two-state agreement with Israel. His departure now would represent what many Palestinians already feel: that after nearly two decades, peace talks have proved futile and a two-state deal, with Israel and a viable Palestinian state living side-by-side, is out of reach.

However, his careful choice of words appeared to leave space for him to change his mind and raised the possibility that, despite his denial, his speech was an attempt to convince the United States to apply more pressure on Israel so that peace talks can resume.

Abbas also addressed the Israeli public, saying: "Peace is much more important than any political game for any party. Peace is much more important than any government coalition, especially if it might lead a country to an uncertain future. Peace is possible. I have always believed in this."

There are question marks over when the next elections will come. Presidential and parliamentary elections are scheduled for 24 January, but are widely expected to be delayed until June at the earliest because of a deep rift between the West Bank, run by Fatah, and Gaza, run by its Islamist rival, Hamas. An election in both areas is unlikely without a reconciliation between the factions, but that has proved increasingly elusive.

If Abbas does not run in the next elections that might open the way for Marwan Barghouti, a popular leader from Fatah who is serving five life terms in an Israeli jail.

Abbas is a moderate who has tied his political career, first as prime minister then as president, to a negotiated two-state peace agreement. He has refused to resume talks with the Israelis until all settlement construction is halted, an Israeli obligation under the 2003 US road map, which remains the basis of Middle East peace talks.

Early in the year Washington also insisted Israel stop all settlement activity, but has since significantly softened its position, asking instead for Israeli "restraint." That change in approach culminated last weekend when Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, provoked Palestinian and Arab anger by praising as "unprecedented" a partial settlement freeze offer from Israel.

Israel says it will offer a temporary freeze but with significant caveats, including the continued construction of 3,000 settler homes, as well as continued building in east Jerusalem settlements and of all public projects in settlements. The Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, leads a rightwing cabinet that is largely supportive of the settlement project.

Abbas has seen his credibility among Palestinians damaged in recent months. First he agreed to meet Netanyahu in New York in September, days after insisting there would be no meeting without an Israeli settlement freeze.

Then last month, under US pressure, he withdrew Palestinian support for a UN human rights council resolution endorsing a report into the Gaza war by the South African judge Richard Goldstone. Within days Abbas reversed his decision and the report was endorsed by the council and is also likely to be endorsed by the UN general assembly this week.

Before Abbas's announcement, Nader Said-Foqahaa, a Palestinian political analyst, said the Palestinian leader was under pressure to deliver some improvement to his people after being elected on a platform of a negotiated path to independence.

"He is the best president that the Americans and Israelis can have," he said. "He is ready and willing to go the distance. But what did he receive? Nothing."Qais Abdul-Karim, a veteran leftist politician, said there had been the beginning of discussions among Palestinian leaders about pulling out of the road map commitments and talks on a two-state agreement because of the stalemate. Some had suggested a return to some form of armed struggle. "We have to show the Israelis they cannot go on having security and occupation at the same time," he said.