From EuroNews.net

Senior Palestinian officials say Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas has submitted his resignation, frustrated over being blocked in a power struggle with President Yasser Arafat. On Thursday, Abbas called on parliament to either back him or sack him. Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat made the announcement.

Erakat seemed to confirm reports that the resignation was an attempt by Abbas to bring matters to a head: " I hope we can the working formula which can get us from this crisis." However, Palestinian sources say Arafat has accepted his premier's resignation.

If Abbas were to quit definitively, it would be another blow for the "road map" peace plan- amid the collapse of a ceasefire declared by Palestinian militants and an Israeli military campaign to assassinate or capture their leaders.

In a speech to legislators, reviewing his first 100 days in office, Abbas admitted rifts with Arafat. He wants to be given control of Palestinian security services so he can tackle groups behind suicide atatcks against Israelis.

And with Arafat making the decisions we will be even farther from peace. :( A shame really since Abbas really tried to go after suicide bombers etc.

Great, back to arafat. Let the mayhem continue.

<font color=cadetblue>Sad news. Abbas really seemed commited to the peace process and now he's gone.</font>

There will never be peace in Palestine while Arafat is alive. He is too jealous of his power, and his power is based on terrorism.
Let us all pray that he dies fast, and in a natural way. Making him a martyr would be a catastrophe.

This is not Arafat's fault. Arafat stayed out of the process - this is Sharon's fault.

In order for Abbas to have credibility amongst the Palestinian people, he had to achieve something, *anything* on the level that Arafat had done. Instead, all that happened was that he appeared to make concessions while receiving nothing in return except more military attacks on the Palestinian street.

And by the way, Arafat's power is not based on terrorism - it is based on democracy. The people voted Arafat there - they never voted for Abbas; Arafat chose and appointed him. If a certain Israeli prime mininister had allowed peaceful elections to take place in Palestine in January of this year, we might have seen a different political makeup to the PA today.

I doubt if there will ever be peace while Sharon is in power - and you may criticise Arafat; but of all of the potential leaders of the Palestinians (those with credibility amongst the populace), he is the least militant of all of them.

Arafat led the frikkin PLO. Back to him? I say assassinate/exterminate his ass!!! Really. He does nothing other than pander to terrorists. Turn Mossad loose on him, I vote.

<font color=cadetblue>Hmm, but how do we know that the elections weren't rigged? In the case of most dictatorships, the elections are meaningless since the rulers will make sure that they remain in power.</font>

They were overseen by both the EU and the UN (and a *host* of NGO's) and declared to be both 'free and fair'.

More from EuroNews.

EU foreign ministers react to Abbas resignation

"Dangerous instability " for some , "very worrying" for others, Mahmoud Abbas's resignation sparked strong reactions on the final day of the EU foreign ministers meeting. Foreign policy head Javier Solana stayed brave, commission head Romano Prodi more circumspect;

Solana said no-one had expected the road to peace to be anything but bumpy, but Prodi said it was regrettable proof that extremiists on both sides were gaining the ascendency. More downbeat than most was the Swedish foreign minister Anna Lindh, who rounded on US and Israeli policy with the palestinian leadership ; "Mr Arafat is of course responsible, as he has not given the prime minister enough authority, but great responsibilty must be borne by Israel , and the US who gave him the kiss of death", she said.

Britain's Jack Straw hailed the decision to put pressure on Hamas, naming it a terrorist organisation, as proof the EU was making positive contributiions to the peace process.

The Riva del Garda meeting has been dominated by the middle east at a time when EU foreign policy has much other important business and strict timetables to follow , but the middle east crisis is so acute it cannot be ignored.