Qaddumi is the long-time politburo chief of the PLO

Amid signs of a rapprochement with Arafat, Abbas was recently tipped by officials to play a possible role in a new round of negotiations to persuade the factions to agree to a new truce.

A party man who traditionally shunned the spotlight, the 69-year-old had until Arafat's health crisis been PLO secretary general since 1969 -- for 35 years Arafat's number two.

A co-founder of Arafat's Fatah, which is the largest group in the PLO, Abbas has long been convinced that the solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict lies in negotiation.

Back in 1974, he was the first high-ranking Palestinian to initiate contact with left-wing Israeli figures and peace groups.

With no meeting held at all in the year after he resigned, Abbas made a personal visit to inquire about his old colleague's health on October 25, before returning to the Muqataa compound two days later to be by Arafat's bedside.

He was also among four top Palestinian officials who this week visited the French military hospital where Arafat ended his days.

Oldest Comrade

While Qaddumi, propelled by Arafat's death to the head of Fatah, the dominant Palestinian faction that he co-founded with Arafat, is one of the late leader's oldest comrades-in-arms.

Qaddumi, the long-time politburo chief of the Palestine Liberation Organization, joined Arafat in Tunisia , where the PLO was based from 1982, after being expelled from Lebanon .

But the two men went their separate ways in 1994. Qaddumi stayed behind in Tunis when Arafat and the rest of the Palestinian leadership ended their exile and returned to the Palestinian territories.

The 73-year-old Fatah deputy leader and member of the PLO executive committee has been a consistent opponent of the Oslo peace accords, which ushered in the Palestinian Authority, and voted against the PLO and Israel 's mutual recognition.

Known for being better at speaking than fighting, Qaddumi took up the reins of Palestinian diplomacy in 1974 and was the voice of the Palestinian cause abroad for nearly 20 years.

His critics describe him as anachronistic, with Palestinian Authority foreign minister Nabil Shaath overshadowing him at the regional and international levels in recent years.

Born on August 18, 1931 in Kaffer-Qaddum in the West Bank , Qaddumi, also known as Abu Lotf, comes from a well-to-do family.

Throughout his career, Qaddumi has kept up special links with Syria , where he is respected, and meets Syrian leaders because of the sincerity and the consistency of his positions, his aides say.

He always tries to refrain from comment or to tone down differences within his faction, placing Palestinian unity above all else.

His wife, Nabila Rashef Nemr, from a notable family in the West Bank town of Nablus , is a member of the Fatah Revolutionary Council and has had a seat on the Palestinian National Council.

Qaddumi was one of the first senior Palestinian leaders to visit the French military hospital where Arafat spent his final days.

Supporter

Fattuh was born in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip in 1949

Fattuh, the caretaker president, was a key supporter for Arafat. He accompanied the Palestinian leader in exile and returned with him to the Palestinian lands in 1994.

Fattuh was born in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip in 1949, and his family roots go back to a village in the Palestinian lands occupied by Israel in 1984.

Fattuh got primary and preparatory education at a school run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Rafah from 1956 to 1065.

He attended a Beir Sabah school for the first two years of his secondary education until 1967.

But his educational ambitions came to a halt in 1967, the year when the Arab-Israeli war broke out and led to the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

After a two-year hiatus, Fattuh graduated from a secondary school in Jordan . 

Fattuh was elected MP to the Palestinian Legislative Council in 1996, serving as deputy speaker until 2004.

His one and only stab at a cabinet job came in the government of Qorei, who has struggled to impose his authority over the past year. He served briefly as agriculture minister in early 2004.

But in March 2004, he resigned to campaign as parliamentary speaker. As a faithful Arafat lieutenant in a house dominated by Fatah, he easily won the election by a vote of 51-15. Five MPs spoiled their ballot.

At the time, Palestinian officials said he was chosen as Fatah's man for the job because of his Gaza birth, in a bid to ratchet up unity between the divided Palestinian territories ahead of Israel 's plan to evacuate the Gaza Strip next year.

According to the Basic Law, Fattuh will serve as interim PA president only until elections are held within 60 days after the president's death or incapacitation.

Even so, his position will only be honorary. Arafat's far more powerful number two in the PLO, Abbas, is already effectively in charge of the PLO.

Qorei is likely to stay on as premier until elections.

For a man who spent 30 years in exile with the leader, returning with him in triumph to Gaza in 1994, and a loyal lieutenant in the mainstream Fatah party, Fattuh has never emerged from the shadows as a key player in his own right.

“I swear to Almighty God that I will be committed to the homeland and its sacred places and to respect the law and constitution,” he said during Thursday's swearing-in ceremony in parliament just hours after Arafat died.

Observers say there is a consensus that Fattuh is far too marginal, lacking a real power base to be practical or successful.