PLO chief Mahmud Abbas, who has emerged as the most likely winner of January's Palestinian election to succeed Yasser Arafat, is a polished and moderate politician more admired abroad than at home. Better known as Abu Mazen, a name taken from his dead first-born son, he was thrust to the fore of moderates' electoral hopes Saturday after his more charismatic rival, Marwan Barghuti, confirmed he would not stand in the poll.
"Members and supporters of Fatah (must) support the movement's candidate, the combatant, brother Mahmud Abbas," said the jailed West Bank Fatah leader in a statement read by minister without portfolio Qaddura Fares late Friday.
Abbas' candidacy for the mainstream Fatah - the largest party in the Palestine Liberation Organisation - was confirmed by an overwhelming revolutionary council vote Thursday, just over six weeks before the election.
Briefly Arafat's prime minister before walking out after a bruising power struggle for control of the sprawling Palestinian security apparatus, Abu Mazen nonetheless pledged to follow in the strongman's footsteps after his death. "We promise that we will continue on the same path that you (Arafat) have paved to achieve the dream that has always lived with you... establishing an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital," he told MPs.
From his September 2003 resignation until Arafat's departure to a French hospital late last month, Abbas kept out of the spotlight, retaining many of his key positions and trying to patch up his differences with his boss.
But as Arafat lay dying in Paris, he swung centre stage, becoming de facto Palestinian leader, assuming interim control of the PLO and the central committee of the dominant Fatah party.
His formal appointment as PLO leader immediately after Arafat's death has galvanised international efforts to rescue the moribund Middle East peace process, which ground to a halt after he left office in 2003.
In the last week alone, he has played host to outgoing US Secretary of State Colin Powell - on his first visit to the region in 18 months - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw.
A Washington favourite, Abbas held talks with President George W. Bush, who cold-shouldered Arafat, in the White House in July 2003.
Last year, he led the Palestinian delegation at a summit in Jordan to launch the roadmap peace plan, where he pledged to "resort to peaceful means in our quest to end the occupation".
Unlike Arafat's second prime minister, Ahmed Qorei, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon also saw him as a man to do business with, although his failure to gain more concrete results from their talks on issues such as the release of Palestinian prisoners ultimately undermined his authority.
Few Palestinians mourned his departure last year, as many believed he had become too close to both Sharon and Bush.
An outspoken critic of the "militarisation" of the Palestinian uprising, Abbas managed to persuade armed factions such as Hamas to call a truce in their campaign of attacks against Israel in July 2003. The so-called hudna collapsed seven weeks later amid mutual recriminations.
Amid signs of a rapprochement with Arafat, Abbas was recently tipped by officials to play a possible role in a new round of negotiations to persuade the factions to agree to a new truce.
A party man who traditionally shunned the spotlight, the 69-year-old was PLO secretary general - or Arafat's number two - from 1969 until the iconic leader's health crisis 35 years later. A co-founder in the 1960s of Arafat's Fatah, which is the largest group in the PLO, Abbas has long been convinced that the solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict lies in negotiation.
Back in 1974, he was the first high-ranking Palestinian to initiate contact with left-wing Israeli figures and peace groups.
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