RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters):

A Hamas boycott prevented the Palestinian Parliament from convening yesterday, a move President Mahmoud Abbas may seek to use as grounds to keep his emergency government in place.

Abbas, who leads the moderate Fatah faction, disbanded a Hamas-led government and formed an emergency administration after the Islamist group seized the Gaza Strip by force on June 14. Since then, he has ruled by emergency decree.

The annual opening of Parliament, meant to pick a new Speaker, was called off because Hamas lawmakers said it was illegal. Israel's arrests of dozens of Hamas deputies mean the group no longer has the majority it won in the 2006 elections.