The Palestinian Authority decided on Thursday to embark on a campaign to rally the world against the understandings reached between Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and US President George W. Bush over the future of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The decision came amid reports that PA Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei was considering resigning from his post in protest against the deal. Qurei has threatened to step down in the past, and it was not clear if he was serious this time.

PA officials have reacted with fury to the deal, describing it as a "new Balfour Declaration." Some warned that the US support for Sharon's plan would unleash a wave of terrorist attacks against American interests in PA-controlled areas and the Arab world.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad officials dubbed the agreement as a US declaration of war on the Palestinians, calling for increased attacks against Israel.

The PA daily Al-Ayyam ran a red banner headline that read: "The Second Balfour Declaration -- Bush Exempts Israel From Full Withdrawal From the Occupied Territories."

Another PA daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, said the American message to the Palestinians is, "We are pushing you towards despair."

PA Chairman Yasser Arafat, who held a series of meetings in his office in Ramallah with to discuss the repercussion of the deal, declared that the Palestinians would continue the fight until they achieve all their rights, including the right of return for the refugees.

"The extremist Israeli rulers are wrong and so are those who support them and you know who I mean," Arafat in a televised speech to mark the 16th anniversary of the killing of his aid, Khalil al-Wazir (Abu Jihad), in Tunis.

Arafat urged Palestinians to defend their land, holy places, and Jerusalem. "Our fate is that we are the defenders of our land and our holy shrines and our rights, as well as the right of the refugees to return to their homeland," he said.

He reiterated his threat to resort to violence against Israel as long as it continues to occupy Palestinian territories. "Israeli crimes will be faced with more resistance to force Israeli occupiers and herds of settlers to leave Palestinian land," Arafat said.

He warned that, "Israel will not achieve security through occupation, arrogance and assassinating our leaders. The Palestinian people will never give up the goal of achieving freedom and independence and a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital."

A statement issued by the PA leadership called on the international community to support the Palestinian stance vis a vis the Bush-Sharon understandings and reiterated the Palestinians' commitment to peace.

PA Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei condemned the deal as a "catastrophe" and said he had proposed an emergency meeting of the quartet of the European Union, US, Russia and United Nations, to discuss the repercussions of the agreement.

He also called for an emergency summit of Arab countries.

"This is a catastrophe that has to be dealt with," said Qurie, who met with European and US diplomats in his office. "We have rights and we are determined to defend them. No one can renounce the Palestinians' rights, such as the right of return and the right to establish a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders."

During a phone conversation with Secretary of State Colin Powell, Qurei expressed his strong opposition to the understandings reached between Bush and Sharon, saying they will lead to the collapse of the peace process.

PA Minister for Negotiations Saeb Erekat said he could not understand how Israel and the US could reach an agreement without consulting with the PA.

"Neither Bush nor Sharon has the right to negotiate on behalf of the Palestinians, and they cannot simply change the international resolutions and legitimacy and signed agreements," he said.

He accused Sharon and Bush of working at the expense of the Palestinian people's rights to guarantee their own political future, asking how Bush could legitimatize Jewish settlements while the international community was opposed to the move.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad issued separate statements in the Gaza Strip calling on the PA to renounce the Oslo Accords and return to the armed struggle against Israel. The two organizations threatened to step up their attacks against Israel in response to the deal.

"The clear American position confirms that the Palestinian resistance's policy has been right from the beginning," said the Hamas statement. "The US is fully biased to the Zionist entity and is a partner in the aggression against our people."

Hamas called on the PA to declare the end of the peace process and to return to the strategy of armed resistance against Israel

Islamic Jihad said the US position represents a "war declaration on Palestinians."

"Ignoring the Palestinian refugees' right of return and legalizing the establishment and expansion of Jewish settlements on Palestinian lands is a declaration of war against our people," said Khaled al-Batsh, a senior Islamic Jihad official. Copyright 1995-2004 The Jerusalem Post - http://www.jpost.com/