Former prime minister Mahmud Abbas appears in pole position to grab the lion's share of power from Yasser Arafat, taking temporary charge of the Palestine Liberation Organisation and the Palestinian leader's Fateh faction during his enforced absence in France. Abbas, who quit as premier in September last year after barely four months in the job, will be in the chair for a meeting of the PLO's executive committee today. "It will be the first time that a meeting of executive committee has met without Yasser Arafat as its president," said Bassam Al Sahli, a member of the committee.And Negotiations Minister Saeb Erakat confirmed that Abbas — better known as Abu Mazen — has been put in charge of the Fateh Central Committee while Arafat is treated for a potentially fatal blood disorder in Paris. Many people had written off 69-year-old Abbas as a political force in the aftermath of his resignation, tendered following a series of bruising confrontations with his long-time colleague. He has kept largely out of the public eye and cut down on his meetings. But he clung onto his position as general secretary of the PLO and as deputy head of Fateh even though he has not actually atÂÂtended a Fateh meeting since his time as prime minister.