Fadwa Barghouti, wife of jailed Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti, officially registered him Wednesday evening as a candidate to run for the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) presidential elections slated for Jan. 9, 2005.

She told reporters that she had submitted applications for her husband and a news conference would be held in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Thursday.

Barghouti, imprisoned in an Israeli jail for five life terms, announced Wednesday that he would run as an independent candidate in the upcoming elections.

Mahmoud Abbas, or better known as Abu Mazen, was named by the mainstream Fatah movement as its candidate for the elections.

The deadline for the submission of registration forms was midnight Wednesday.

Barghouti's backers have collected the required 5,000 signatures in recent days, and were to submit them along with the application.

Under registration conditions, Fadwa Barghouti should bring at least 5,000 supporters' signatures and pay 3,000 US dollars as registration fee.

Barghouti announced to run for the election last Thursday, but declared to drop and issued a call for unity after receiving pressure from Fatah.

It was not immediately clear what caused him to change his mind again.

Barghouti, 45, enjoyed great popularity among Palestinians. He was sentenced in June by an Israeli criminal court to five life terms after being convicted of involvement in the killing of five Israelis.

Israel has ruled out an early release for Barghouti.

Source: Xinhua