RAMALLAH, West Bank, Aug 22 (AFP) - Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is looking to bring his former prime minister Mahmud Abbas back into the fold nearly a year after he quit in a power battle, senior officials said Sunday.
A leading member of the mainstream Fatah movement said that he had been asked by Arafat to hold talks with Abbas about a return to the political frontline, with other sources tipping him to play a mediating role in attempts to persuade armed factions to accept a new ceasefire.
"I was assigned by president Arafat to speak to Abu Mazen (Abbas's nom de guerre) and he has no objections," Fatah central committee member Sakher Habash told AFP.
"There are ongoing arrangments to call for a meeting of the executive committee of the PLO which Abu Mazen will attend," Habash added.
Abbas resigned last September, four months after being appointed Arafat's first ever prime minister, in frustration at his failure to persuade Arafat to relinquish control of the myriad Palestinian security services.
Although he has not attended any meetings of the main Palestinian institutions, he remains the official number two of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and a member of the Fatah central committee.
Other sources said that Abbas had also met his successor, Ahmed Qorei, about a possible return.
"These are serious attempts to bring back Abu Mazen," said another senior Fatah source.
"There have been suggestions that he should head the Fatah delegation with possible talks with the other factions in Cairo."
Militant groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad called a seven-week truce during Abbas's brief premiership. It broke down exactly a year ago after a massive bus bomb in Jerusalem and Israel's subsequent assassination of a senior Hamas leader.
Qorei failed back in December to persuade the factions to agree another truce at talks in Cairo but a new round of negotiations is widely expected.
Any move by Arafat to bring Abbas back into government is likely to be seen as a victory for reformists who have become increasingly vocal in their push for change within the Palestinian leadership.
The veteran leader said last week that his Palestinian Authority had committed "unacceptable mistakes", a rare admission which follows a collapse of law and order in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Abbas was a favourite of the US administration, holding talks with President George W. Bush in the White House in July last year.
He led the Palestinian delegation at a summit in Jordan last year for the launch of the roadmap peace plan where he pledged to "resort to peaceful means in our quest to end the occupation."
Since he came to power four years ago, Bush has refused all contact with Arafat and has not extended any invitation to Qorei.