A close source to Barghouti announced Wednesday that Barghouti decided to run as an independent candidate for the upcoming Palestinian National Authority (PNA) presidential elections.

A senior official of the mainstream Fatah movement said Wednesday that Fatah would ask Marwan Barghoutinot to run for the presidential elections slated for Jan. 9, 2005.

Hatem Abdel Qader, Fatah's highest committee member, told reporters that if Barghouti ran for the presidential elections "we would do our best not to have two candidates in the Fatah movement in the elections."

"We would try to convince him to withdraw his decision to run in the elections," Abdel Qader said.

On the final day of candidate registration, Barghouti's wife Fadwa Barghouti met him at an Israeli prison early Wednesday before heading for the West Bank city of Ramallah to register him as a candidate for the election.

Under registration conditions, Fadwa Barghouti should bring at least 5,000 supporters' signatures and pay US$ 3,000 as registration fee.

Barghouti announced to run for the election last Thursday, but declared to drop and issued a call for unity after receiving pressure from Fatah.

It was not immediately clear what caused him to change his mind again.

Barghouti, 45, enjoyed great popularity among Palestinians. Hewas sentenced in June by an Israeli criminal court to five life terms after being convicted of involvement in the killing of five Israelis.

Israel has ruled out an early release for Barghouti.

(Xinhua News Agency December 2, 2004)