Jailed Palestinian uprising leader Marwan Barghouti decided on Friday to drop his plan to run in the Jan. 9 presidential election and called on Fatah members to support Mahmoud Abbas, al-Jazeera TV reported.

An aide to Barghouti announced Friday that Barghouti would neither be a Fatah candidate nor an independent one, changing his decision to run a day ago.

Palestinian Minister of State Qadoora Faris told a news conference Friday that "Barghouti called on the Palestinian people to support Abbas in the presidential election."

Barghouti who led two Palestinian uprisings, was arrested by the Israeli army in 2002 for his role in anti-Israeli attacks and is serving five life terms in jail.

The former head of Fatah in the West Bank enjoys widest support in the occupied territories even in jail.

(Xinhua News Agency November 27, 2004)