Last week senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat warned of the possible collapse of the Palestinian Authority (PA) if a peace deal with the Israelis was not reached this year, as envisioned during the Annapolis peace conference which took place last year in Annapolis, Maryland.

"If we fail to produce an agreement in 2008, we may disappear," said Erekat. "The impact will not be limited to Israel and the Palestinians. Watch the region," he warned.

Erekat also told the Middle East Times last week that he very much doubted this elusive "peace deal could be reached unless Israel stopped its military incursions into the West Bank and Gaza as well as abided by international law and agreements made with the Americans."

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said: "We don't have any other options but to negotiate. Time is short and we must reach a result before the end of the year," following a meeting with Slovenia's Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel in Ramallah.

Erekat further suggested that the Americans should look to see who is in breach of the road map.

According to the agreements, Israel is obliged to cease all settlement building in the West Bank, to address among other things, the future borders of a Palestinian state and the status of East Jerusalem, as well as the issue of the right of return of Palestinian refugees.

The Jewish state also promised on several occasions, in talks with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, to remove some of the approximately 700 checkpoints in the West Bank, which have crippled the Palestinian economy and disrupted daily life.

However, not a single roadblock has been removed and settlement building continues unabated. The PA for its part has cooperated with the Israelis on security issues, which have included cracking down on Hamas fighters, closing institutions run by the Islamic organization, and establishing law and order in numerous cities and towns in the West Bank.

In an interview with the Middle East Times a senior spokesman from Abbas' Fatah faction, and former peace negotiator, Ahmed Abed Rahman accused U.S. President George W. Bush and the Americans of not taking the peace process seriously, and bluntly stated: "There is no peace process, it is dead."

"When Bush came to Ramallah several months ago it was merely for a photo opportunity and the chance to try and redeem America's reputation in the Middle East, which is in tatters following the mess in Iraq," Abed Rahman said.

And although Abed Rahman was unequivocal that the recent visits by U.S. leaders to Ramallah and the peace conference in Annapolis, were a waste of time, he explained that keeping the Palestinian problem on the international political agenda was politically imperative and that American intervention was vital.

"We are in urgent need of help and without it Israel would not compromise at all," said Abed Rahman.

The battered Palestinian economy is also dependent on financial aid from the international community such as the $7.4 billion promised to the PA at the donor's conference in Paris several months ago.

Abed Rahman was also of the opinion that due to the lack of progress in peace negotiations another intifada, or uprising, was not only possible but perhaps necessary.

"But the new intifada should follow international standards of acceptability and morality and should use mass non-violent civil disobedience along the lines of Martin Luther King and Gandhi," Abed Rahman told the Middle East Times.

"Suicide bombings and attacking civilians are barbaric and do our cause no good. Instead I'm thinking of a people's power revolution along the lines of the Orange Revolution in Ukraine.

"This would involve large peaceful demonstrations carried out on a daily basis all over the West Bank. Near the checkpoints, the settlements, the Israeli military bases," the Fatah spokesman explained.

"This will require a lot of patience and determination, and many will perhaps pay the ultimate price, as the Israeli military will respond with excessive violence as it has been accustomed to doing over the decades.

"But then hopefully the world will see clearly who has taken the moral high ground and who the saboteur of peace is," Abed Rahman said.

Indeed, as the chances of peace continue to appear to fade, Hamas' popularity has grown in leaps and bounds. And while Erekat would not comment on the possibility of Hamas taking over the West Bank, he conceded that the popularity of Abbas had declined sharply while support for the Islamists has risen.

"People are angry with us, their pessimism and anger is because of our inability to deliver," he said, referring to a recent poll.