Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas said on Thursday he would take action to form a new government that would meet international demands and lead to the end of a punishing aid freeze.
"We are going to take decisive decisions regarding the formation of a new government that respects Arab, Palestinian and international legitimacy in order to lift the siege imposed on our people and ease their suffering," he told diplomats and dignitaries in the West Bank city of Ramallah at a feast marking the end of the Ramazan fast.
The moderate Abbas is at loggerheads with the ruling Hamas movement over protracted efforts to create a national unity cabinet to replace the Hamas-led administration that is boycotted by Israel and the West.
Abbas had said on Tuesday he would like to see a temporary technocratic government formed in order to give him and the movement time to sort out their differences but his idea was dismissed by Hamas.
Since Hamas formed a government in March after trouncing Abbas's Fatah movement in elections, the United States, the European Union and Israel have boycotted the Palestinian Authority, cutting off financial aid and exacerbating an already catastrophic economic situation.