Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has given the Hamas government until the end of the week to accept a manifesto implicitly recognising Israel or face a referendum on the issue.
Hamas swept to power in January elections and has been locked in a power struggle with Mr Abbas ever since. It rejects the document penned by Palestinians in Israeli jails.
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| Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas |
Mr Abbas had set deadline for today for Hamas to accept the manifesto on Palestinian statehood.
The manifesto calls for a Palestinian state on all of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which Israel captured from Jordan and Egypt in the 1967 Middle East war. The most Hamas has proposed is a long-term truce if Israel, which withdrew from Gaza last year, also gives up the West Bank and East Jerusalem, far short of meeting the co-existence demands of Israel or Western countries.
A referendum, with opinion polls suggesting most Palestinians support the document, would also be seen as a confidence vote on the Hamas government.
"Before the end of the week, President Abbas will hold a news conference to announce the holding of the referendum and the beginning of the process for carrying it out," said PLO official Yasser Abed Rabbo.
"We, of the PLO Executive Committee, have approved his move and therefore Hamas has until the end of the week to change its position and accept the ... document," he added.
Mr Abed-Rabbo said Arab leaders had appealed to Mr Abbas to give Hamas more time after the deadline expired.
Hamas has said a referendum would be illegal so soon after the parliamentary election in January. Speaking before the PLO Executive Committee convened, a Hamas spokesman said an extension of the deadline should be open-ended.
Western donors and Israel have cut off vital funds to the Palestinian Authority, calling on Hamas to renounce violence, recognise the Jewish state and accept existing interim peace agreements.
Although opinion polls favour Mr Abbas, if the referendum goes against him it would be seen as a vote against Fatah policies of negotiation with Israel.
The government might ask Mr Abbas to step down and urge him to call a presidential election.