AFP - Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Tuesday accused Israel of crippling the Middle East peace process by refusing to completely freeze all settlement activity on occupied Palestinian land.

The president made the comments at a meeting of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), convened to decide how to fill a constitutional void once the presidential and parliamentary mandates run out next month.

Abbas said the Palestinians would seek a UN Security Council resolution recognising the borders of a Palestinian state encompassing all lands occupied by Israel in 1967, including annexed east Jerusalem.

"Why are we doing this? Because the negotiations have stopped. Why have they stopped? Because Israel cannot stop the settlements or recognise international law," Abbas told the PLO Central Council.

The council was meeting Tuesday to figure out what to do after January 24, when both rival Hamas and Fatah factions agree that the mandates of parliament and the president will have expired and with no new elections set.

The PLO, dominated by Fatah, represents most political factions but not Hamas. It is considered the Palestinians' sole international representative.

Abbas, who heads the Fatah party as well as the PLO, had called for new elections, but the electoral committee said they had to be postponed because Hamas vowed to prevent the vote in its Gaza Strip enclave.

The Islamist Hamas and Abbas's secular Fatah have been bitterly divided since June 2007, when years of mounting tensions boiled over into deadly street battles in the Gaza Strip and ended with Hamas seizing control of the coastal enclave, splitting the Palestinians into two separate entities.

The PLO council is expected to decide to prolong the mandates of both the president and parliament in order to avoid a constitutional limbo that could cement the rift between the rivals, PLO officials told AFP in the days leading up to Tuesday's meeting.

The expected decision to maintain the status quo appears to enjoy the support of Hamas, with the group's prime minister Ismail Haniya insisting that the Hamas parliamentary speaker would remain in office.

"Aziz al-Dweik will remain the legitimate leader of parliament until there are free and fair elections under a national reconciliation agreement," Haniya told a mass rally on Monday.

He added, however, that his group would not be bound by any decision taken by the PLO in Ramallah.

It was also not immediately clear how long Abbas would stay in office even if his mandate were extended.

The beleaguered Palestinian leader said in November he did not wish to seek another term in the January elections because of his frustrations with US-led peace efforts and Israel's refusal to freeze all settlement growth.

The last time parliamentary elections were held, in January 2006, Hamas won a landslide victory, picking up 74 seats in the 132-member parliament, leaving Fatah with 45.

Abbas was elected on January 9, 2005 for a four-year term. The Palestinian Authority extended his presidency by one year so presidential and parliamentary elections could be held on the same date, as required by Palestinian Basic Law.

Hamas does not recognise the extension.