Abbas 'not to seek re-election'

Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, has said he will not seek re-election when elections are held in January, Palestinian officials have said. "The president insists on not running in the upcoming election," an official from the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) executive committee said on Thursday. Another PLO official said Abbas, who heads the Fatah faction in the West Bank, will give a speech later on Thursday explaining his decision not to run. Saeb Erakat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, said: "At the end of the day it's not the presidency. "It's the question of the Israeli government continuing settlement activity, fait accompli policies, dictation; and nineteen years after trying to achive a two-state solution, maybe the president has come to his moment of truth, and I think he'll specify this personally."