Jerusalem (PTI): Stepping up pressure on the rival Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas, Islamic faction Hamas, has threatened to name an interim President if elections for the post are not held in January 2009, a media report said.

They would not recognise Abbas as the President of PA after the completion of his four year term, 'The Jerusalem Post' said quoting Hamas officials.

Hamas threatened to declare one of its members as interim president if the elections are not held on time, the report said.

"We will remove his pictures from all the public institutions.Until now our policy has been not to challenge Abbas legitimacy as the elected leader of the Palestinian Authority," an official told the daily.

"If he wants to seek another term in office, he should contest new elections. By announcing that he will stay in power for another year, Abbas is acting in violation of the Palestinian Basic Law," the official said.

Hamas insists that Abbas' term expires in January 2009, while the PAargues that the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) amended an election law so as to call for holding parliamentary and presidential elections together.

The current Hamas-dominated parliament was elected in January 2006 and the next elections are to held in 2010 as per PA laws.

Mahmoud Abbas led PA, whose control has been limited to the West Bank since Hamas' takeover of the Gaza Strip in June last year, decided earlier this year thathis term would be extended until January 25, 2010, to coincide with the end of the term of the PLC.

Dismissing the announcement as a "flagrant violation of the Palestinian Basic Law," Hamas said that the purported amendment of the election law was itself illegal.