Delegates at Fatah's general conference on Saturday reelected Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as a leader of the party.

The election of Abbas was unopposed and the conferees applauded when Tayeb Abdel Rahim, a Fatah official, announced that Abbas would continue to be the general leader of Fatah.

Othman Abu Gharbeya, chief of the convention, officially confirmed the decision later.

The general conference is the first of its kind in 20 years and the first to be held inside the Palestinian territories. During the conference, which started on Tuesday, Fatah will also elect a new central committee and a revolutionary council, the highest legislative bodies of Fatah.

Meanwhile, the conferees agreed on the number of the central committee's members. The new committee will comprise 22 members, 18 of them would be elected by voting and four would be appointed by the elected members.

The new revolutionary council will be made up of 120 members.

The elections of the two bodies will be carried out on Sunday under the hope that the Islamic Hamas movement, Fatah's bitter rival, will allow the Gaza-based Fatah members to run and vote in the elections.

Hamas, which controls Gaza, prevented some 400 Fatah members in Gaza from traveling to attend the conference in the West Bank city of Bethlehem.

(Xinhua News Agency August 9, 2009)