THE Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, who is expected to win a landslide victory in presidential elections today, has set a series of conditions for peace talks with Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister.

Abbas, 70, said he wanted to see the removal of Israeli checkpoints in the West Bank and the release of some, if not all, of the estimated 7,000 Palestinians held in Israeli jails.

The former prime minister also demanded the withdrawal of the Israeli army from the outskirts of Palestinian towns to positions they held before the intifada began in 2000.

“Unless we see progress on the ground, I will not rush to meet Sharon,” he declared.

The comments by Abbas, a pragmatist regarded by Sharon and President George W Bush as a man they can do business with, appeared to be intended partly to convince almost 2m Palestinian voters he will not be a puppet of Israel or America.

Television images shown in recent days of Abbas being borne on the shoulders of cheering gunmen have also seemed designed to burnish his radical credentials.

However, his tough words coincided with signs of impatience from Sharon’s advisers at the Palestinian leadership’s failure to end attacks on Israelis in Gaza, suggesting any political honeymoon could be short.

“Time is running out for Abbas,” said one adviser. “If the attacks continue, Sharon will wipe out parts of Gaza in an unprecedented way.”

Opinion polls indicate that Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, will win about 65% of the vote, compared with 22% for his rival, Dr Mustafa Barghouti. The result is due to be announced tomorrow morning.

Abbas’s supporters do not underestimate his task in succeeding Yasser Arafat, who dominated Palestinian life for four decades until his death last November.

One of the few survivors from the early years of Arafat’s struggle for a Palestinian state, Abbas was the second most powerful man in Palestinian politics.

In March 2003 he became prime minister to placate American demands for a “new leadership” to draw the Palestinians into the peace process known as the road map. He resigned six months later after Arafat denied him the authority to negotiate an end to the terrorist violence.

Abbas has nevertheless moved swiftly to establish himself as the senior leader in recent weeks. He had himself named leader of the Palestine Liberation Organisation and election candidate of the Fatah movement he helped Arafat to found in the late 1950s.

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