Palestinian election campaign winds up

While Palestine Liberation Organisation chairman Abbas appeared set to cruise to a comfortable victory in Sunday's polls, his main rival made an aggressive bid to close the gap on the last day of campaigning.

Mustafa Barghuti, an independent candidate who trails Abbas in the polls by a huge margin, was arrested by the Israeli security services in occupied east Jerusalem as he was on his way to Friday prayers at the revered Al-Aqsa mosque.

"You are arresting a presidential candidate who has a permit to be in east Jerusalem," Barghuti said as he was dragged into a white van by two Israeli civilian-clothed agents.

At a press conference earlier, Barghuti had announced his intention to take part in prayers at the mosque, the third holiest site in Islam and the symbol of the Palestinian struggle for independence.

Israeli police spokesman Shmulik Ben Ruby confirmed that Barghuti had been detained and charged that he had violated an agreement by trying to reach the compound.

During an address in English to reporters, Barghuti presented himself as the "leader of the democratic opposition" and hailed Sunday's vote as possibly the first fully democratic election in the Arab world "in a thousand years".

Meanwhile, Abbas, the official candidate of the ruling Fatah party he co-founded with Arafat in the late 1950s, was ending his campaign in a more low-profile fashion.

He reportedly renounced a planned visit to the Al-Aqsa mosque in order not be seen escorted by the Israeli security services.

Abbas is already perceived as having the tacit backing of Israel and the United States, and his calls for an end to the armed intifada have triggered furious reactions from Palestinian militant organisations.

Arafat's likely successor kicked off the final day of campaigning with meetings in the West Bank town of Ramallah, and the nearest he was scheduled to come to Jerusalem on Friday was during a visit to the West Bank Jerusalem suburbs of Al-Ram and Bir Nabala.

"Arafat reminds us the huge sacrifices made by the Palestinian people to free his land and obtain an independent state. We will never forget our martyrs and wounded who gave their lives for the land," Abbas said as he laid a wreath on Arafat's tomb in Ramallah for "Martyrs Day".