"We have learnt about this by the media and have still to get any official word that Israel will not allow the elections to take place in Jerusalem," Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, told reporters after a meeting with Egyptian intelligence services chief Omar Suleiman.
"The Palestinian leadership will study this issue before making a response, for the responsibility is enormous.
"We don't want to anticipate what is going to happen. The leadership must see and decide how it is going to act as it is a serious and extremely important question for the future of the Palestinian people."
An official in Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office had earlier said that voting would not be allowed to take place in any form in East Jerusalem on January 25.
"We will not allow there to be any polling booths in Jerusalem for the Palestinian elections. In the past, we have allowed Palestinians to vote in post offices but not this time," an official in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office said.
Israel captured and then annexed east Jerusalem after the 1967 Arab-Israeli war but the international community still regards the area, home to nearly 200,000 Palestinians, as occupied territory.
© 2005 Agence France-Presse
To add a comment,
Please log in:
Don't have an account?
Register now to comment on stories and stay up to date on important events and issues in the Middle East with our newsletter.