The Palestinian president will hold a referendum on July 31 on a statehood proposal that implicitly recognises Israel, officials say. The plan by Mahoud Abbas favours a two-state solution to end the conflict with Israel. "Mr Abbas is to sign the decree setting the date for the referendum on Saturday, which means it will be held 50 days later," on July 31, Nabil Abu Rudeina, a spokesperson for Abbas, said.A referendum would be seen as a confidence vote on the government run by the Islamic militant group Hamas, whose election led the West and Israel to sever funds to the Palestinian Authority. After initially calling the referendum earlier this week, Abbas gave Hamas a few more days to reconsider its position on a manifesto written by Palestinian prisoners in an Israeli jail. But the officials close to Abbas said Hamas had shown no sign of accepting the document, so the president was going ahead with setting the referendum date. "The Palestinian people in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza Strip will be invited to take part in a referendum on the basis of the prisoners' document on Monday, July 31," a Palestinian official said.