Ramallah - An estimated 52 per cent of Palestinians would vote for Palestinian President and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas if elections were held today, compared to 38 per cent for the Islamist Hamas leader Ismail Haniyah, a poll released Monday indicated.

Reflecting the growth in popularity of the secular Fatah movement and its leader Abbas after its successful conference which ended past week, the poll also found that Fatah's popularity has risen three points, to 44 per cent, since the last survey three months ago.

Hamas's support over the same period has dropped five points, to 28 per cent, according to the poll, conducted by the Ramallah-based Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR) between August 13 and 15.

The survey said 9 per cent of the respondents were still undecided as to how they would vote, and only 60 per cent said they would participate in the elections.

Fatah concluded its sixth conference on Saturday by electing a mostly new and young leadership for its main decision-making bodies while unanimously retaining Abbas as its chairman.

The poll said 39 per cent of the respondents believe Fatah will become stronger and more unified in the aftermath of its conference.

"The decline in support for Hamas might in part be the result of its refusal to allow Fatah members in the Gaza Strip to travel to Bethlehem to participate in Fatah's Sixth Congress," the PCPSR said.

Abbas said Monday that he expects presidential and legislative elections to be held by January 24 next year, the day the current Hamas-dominated parliament ends its four-year term.

However, the poll found out that 54 per cent of the Palestinians oppose holding elections in January if Fatah and Hamas, the two main parties, fail to reconcile their difference and reunite the West Bank and Gaza after more than two years of split. At the same time, 60 per cent said they oppose postponing the elections by a year.

Hamas won the January 2006 parliamentary elections, but Abbas dissolved Fatah's partnership in a short-lived national unity government in June 2007, after Hamas in the Gaza Strip routed security personnel loyal to the Palestinian president and Fatah, and seized control of the salient.

The two movements are holding national reconciliation talks and are expected to conclude them by the end of this month when they meet again in Cairo on August 25.

A high-level Egyptian security delegation met Abbas in Amman Monday night in preparation for the Cairo round of talks.

The delegation will later travel to Ramallah for talks with faction leaders, including Fatah and Hamas, in the West Bank before traveling to Gaza and Syria for more talks with Hamas leaders.

The new poll said 58 per cent of the Palestinians believe the Fatah-Hamas dialogue in Cairo is going to fail.

The poll had a 3 per cent margin of error.(dpa)