PA urges Barghouti to step back

GAZA, Dec. 2 (UPI) -- A senior Palestinian Authority official Thursday urged jailed Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti to reverse his decision to run in the presidential elections.

Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a top aide to Yasser Arafat, told reporters he wishes Barghouti would retract his decision because Fatah institutions had agreed to nominate Mahmoud Abbas as their candidate.

Abu Rudeineh said in Gaza City that he doesn't know why Barghouti changed his mind. Barghouti, serving several life terms in an Israeli prison, first said he would run, then that he wouldn't, but registered for the election as an independent on Wednesday.

"We hope that Marwan is able to re-examine his attitude so as to keep the unity of the Fatah movement and the Palestinian people and the movement's central committee decision," Abu Rudeineh said.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher would not go beyond U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell's comment that a Barghouti candidacy might be "problematic."

A senior State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said, however, Washington was deliberately not taking a position on the issue.

"We don't want him to have the assistance of the United States criticizing him," the official said.