Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, locked in a power struggle with Yasser Arafat, will tell parliament on Thursday he will quit unless he wins authority to take key peace steps, a Palestinian minister said.

Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas talk to reporters outside his office in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Sept3, 2003. Abbas will ask parliament for new powers and could leave office in a power struggle with President Yasser Arafat if refused, Palestinian officials said on Wednesday. [Reuters]

"Abbas will ask for support for his policies or he leaves," Palestinian Information Minister Nabil Amr told Reuters on Wednesday in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

"Abbas will reiterate that the cabinet must be fully empowered, as the Basic Law states, especially in the security and administrative fields," he said.

"He will clearly ask for backing of his policies based on the principle of one authority, respect for the rule of law, and rejection of illegal weapons," Amr said.

The moderate premier will address parliament on Thursday to report on his performance four months after Palestinian President Arafat appointed him under international pressure for an end to almost three years of Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Disputes with Arafat have bogged down Abbas's campaign for reforms, including a crackdown on militant factions, crucial to a U.S.-backed "road map" plan for peace with Israel.

Arafat has denied Israeli and U.S. accusations of fomenting militant violence and obstructing the peace plan, but has refused to cede control to Abbas of Palestinian security forces seen as indispensable to reining in militants.

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