Abbas rejects changes to referendum plan

Abbas has given Hamas until Tuesday to accept the proposal or face a national referendum on the issue. Hamas has rejected the deadline and demanded changes in the plan.

"If anyone wants to amend this document, then we will not reach any results," Abbas told reporters after meeting with European Union official Javier Solana.

Palestinian government employees crowded into banks in the West Bank and Gaza yesterday to get a month's salary in a move to ease an economic crisis.

Some 40,000 of the Palestinian Authority's lowest-earning workers were eligible to receive the money promised by the Hamas-led Palestinian government.

The Hamas government and moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas are set for a showdown over a document written by Palestinians in Israeli jails that implicitly recognises the Jewish state.

Abbas has said he will hold a referendum on the manifesto in July unless Hamas announces by Tuesday that it accepts the document. Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, a Hamas leader, has rejected the proposal.

Presidential envoys planned to hold more talks with Hamas in Gaza before reporting back to Abbas later in the day in the West Bank city of Ramallah.