A special committee, established by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Executive Committee to examine the options of Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas with regard to a unity government, is to recommend early elections in the PA, committee members said yesterday.

Yasser Abed Rabo, who headed the committee, said "the declaration of early elections is the best solution to get out of the crisis in the talks with Hamas on the unity government."

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The executive committee is to decide tomorrow whether to accept or reject the committee's proposals. Abed Rabo said Abbas would make his decision public in a speech next week. A Hamas lawmaker, Halil al-Hiyah, said Wednesday that Hamas was ready to run a candidate, whom he did not identify, against Abbas if early elections were to take place.

Meanwhile, PA Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh arrived in Teheran yesterday on a tour of Arab and Muslim countries, and is expected to meet today with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Haniyeh's political advisor, Ahmed Yussuf, confirmed yesterday that Haniyeh had met recently with British and French representatives and with a delegation of U.S. Democrats.