Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Thursday that presidential and parliamentary elections would not be held without the Gaza Strip, dpa reported.
His clarification came five days after his West Bank-based administration announced that new elections would take place by September.
The announcement by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was perceived as part of a bid to soothe Palestinian thirst for change, amid spreading anti-government protests across the Middle East.
The last presidential elections were held in 2005 and the legislative elections were held in 2006.
"Holding elections in only the West Bank is not acceptable," Abbas told a joint news conference with visiting President of East Timor Jose Ramos-Horta. "It has to include the West Bank and Gaza, otherwise we will not be able to hold them."
Abbas criticized the Quartet on the Middle East, made up of the United States, European Union, Russia and the United Nations and which has been mediating in the peace process between the Palestinians and Israel, for failing to condemn Israeli settlement activities or recognize the 1967 borders of a possible future Palestinian state.
The quartet had its last meeting in Munich earlier this month.
Abbas said the Palestinian Authority had decided to seek international support for a UN Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlements in the West Bank, after the quartet had failed to do that.
"We expected the quartet to issue a balanced statement regarding the borders and security," he said. "But since this did not happen, we have asked the security council to demand that Israel stop the settlements."
Abbas said more than 130 countries supported the anti-settlements resolution. That did not include the US, which had already said it would oppose it.