"I will ask permission of the PLO central council with the aim of promulgating decrees to organise early presidential and legislative elections," Abbas said, lashing out angrily once again at the Islamists.

He spoke to the central committee of the Palestine Liberation Organisation as it met in Ramallah to mull action after Hamas overran forces loyal to Abbas in the Gaza Strip on June 15.

The PLO is considered as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinians the world over and its central committee is empowered with taking important decisions, like the creation of the Palestinian Authority in 1994.

Hamas -- which is not a member of the organisation -- swiftly rejected the call.

"We reject early elections as they were called by a party that does not have the ability to organise them and by an illegitimate central council," spokesman Ayman Taha told AFP in Gaza.

In an impassioned speech, Abbas again denounced the "putsch" that the Islamists committed in Gaza with "their gangs and militias" and ruled out any dialogue with the movement.

"There will be no dialogue with the putschists," he said. "They've dug their own grave."

"Today they commit crime after crime and murder after murder against the sons of our people. They didn't carry out such acts against the occupation, but they have carried them out against their compatriots," he said.

The Islamic Resistance Movement "uses religion to cover its crimes while they have nothing to do with religion," he said. "They utter lies worthy of the devil."

"They have hijacked our people like someone hijacks a plane. We want to retrieve our people to save them from suffering. But Hamas should be punished."

Abbas said he planned for the elections to take place on party lists only, a move that would make it easier to organise the poll in Gaza, which is now ruled by the Islamists who are opposed to early polls.

During the last parliamentary election in January 2006, swept by Hamas, half of the 132 lawmakers in the Palestinian Legislative Council were elected according to party lists and half through single constituency votes.