Fifteen Palestinian candidates in east Jerusalem have said they will boycott parliamentary elections next month.

The candidates added that they were withdrawing their candidacies because Israel has yet to officially commit to allowing east Jerusalem residents to participate in the voting.

"Jerusalemites should be allowed to participate in the elections the same as the other Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza," said Hatem Abdel Kader, one of the leaders of the group. "We think that if there will be no elections in Jerusalem then there should be no elections at all."

The Palestinians claim predominantly Arab east Jerusalem as the capital of a future state. Israel, which captured east Jerusalem in the 1967 war, says the entire city is its eternal capital.

Israel has allowed Arabs in east Jerusalem to participate in previous Palestinian elections. But it has threatened to ban voting this time if the Palestinian Authority does not prevent Hamas from running.

Hamas appears poised to make a strong showing against the ruling Fatah party of Abbas, the Palestinian president, in the election.

Recently, however, Israeli officials said the government may drop its opposition to allowing Palestinian residents of Jerusalem to vote in next month's elections.

In other developments, Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti who is jail apologized Friday for the ruling Fatah failures but urged Palestinians to give it another chance in upcoming elections.

Barghouti, in his first statement since being chosen to head the Fatah list for Jan. 25 parliamentary elections, urged voters to choose Fatah as the only guarantee for creating a democratic state and said Hamas should be "partners" in a new, clean Palestinian government.

"We do not hesitate to apologize to the Palestinian people for the mistakes that have been committed in recent years ... and I call upon the Palestinian people to renew their confidence in Fatah and to give Fatah a new opportunity," Barghouti said.

"I promise our people and I commit myself to conduct broad and deep change in the performance of the Palestinian Authority and we will present the best we have to the Palestinian people," he added.

Barghouti was sentenced to five life sentences in prison by an Israeli court for involvement in fatal attacks on Israelis.

Hamas did well in recent municipal elections, winning control of some of the Palestinians' largest cities, and polls show the militant group could do likewise in the upcoming parliamentary vote.

In the mean time, four international supporters of the middle East peace process said on Wednesday that the next Palestinian Cabinet should not include members of Hamas or other militant groups committed to violence.

The statement by the so-called quartet did not name Hamas, but said a future Palestinian Cabinet "should include no member who has not committed to the principles of Israel's right to exist in peace and security and an unequivocal end to violence and terrorism."
The quartet, which has drafted a Middle East peace plan known as the road map, includes the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia.

Hamas is participating in parliamentary elections for the first time and its popularity among Palestinians has grown considerably.

Opinion polls in the West Bank and Gaza show it is ahead of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' ruling Fatah party ahead of the Jan. 25 election.

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