Some 77 percent of Palestinians support the 'prisoners' document,' which calls for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, according to the results of a poll released Tuesday by Birzeit University in Ramallah.
On Tuesday afternoon, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas extended until the weekend a deadline for Hamas to agree to the plan drawn up by Palestinians jailed in Israel, which implicitly recognizes Israel. The ruling Hamas party has rejected calls to recognize Israel.
The poll also indicated a dramatic drop in support for Hamas. Of the respondents, 37 percent said they would vote for Hamas if parliamentary elections were held today, compared to 50 percent in April. Similarly, 37 percent said they would vote for Fatah.
Hamas and Fatah, Abbas' movement defeated by Hamas in the January parliamentary elections, have been holding talks on the document after Abbas gave Hamas a 10-day deadline to agree to the plan or face a national referendum on the document. The talks broke down for the last time on Monday night, leading Abbas to announce that the referendum would go ahead.
According to the Birzeit poll, a full 83 percent of Palestinians also support the creation of a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders - one of the primary tenets of the prisoners' document.
Earlier Tuesday, Abbas agreed to extend the deadline for Hamas until the weekend, and both sides sent delegations to Yemen on Tuesday to hold further negotiations assisted by Yemeni President Abdullah Salah.
'Before the end of the week, President Abbas will hold a news conference to announce the holding of the referendum and the beginning of the process for carrying it out,' Yasser Abed Rabbo, a PLO Executive Committee official close to Abbas.
'We, of the PLO Executive Committee, have approved his move and therefore Hamas has until the end of the week to change its position and accept the... document,' Abed Rabbo said after Abbas briefed the forum on the deadline extension at the Muqata complex - the Palestinian government headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
Abbas' decision came after appeals by Arab leaders, including President Salah, and representatives of the Palestinian prisoners to delay the announcement of the referendum.
The Hamas delegation, headed by the group's exiled political leader, Khaled Meshal, departed for the Yemeni capital of Sana'a on Tuesday to continue the negotiations on the document.
Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas said Tuesday that the gaps between Abbas and Hamas on the prisoners' document are too great to be settled in just two days. He said negotiations must continue without any time constraints, Israel Radio reported.
The postponement could put off a showdown between Abbas and Hamas.
EU welcomes delay
The European Union said Tuesday it welcomed Abbas' decision to give the Hamas-led government three more days to back the document.
EU spokeswoman Emma Udwin said the EU welcomes dialogue between Abbas and the Hamas-led government.
Udwin said while the EU wants the Hamas government to tone down its anti-Israel views and engage in dialogue with Abbas, it will not getting involved in how the two sides end their discord.
'How that dialogue is conducted is a matter for the Palestinians, not us,' said Udwin.
The prisoners' document, officially known as the National Reconciliation Document, has 18 sections, and was written by five prisoners at the Hadarim prison, including Fatah secretary-general Marwan Barghouti and Abdel Halek Natshe of Hamas.
According to the document, the PLO is the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, and Hamas and Islamic Jihad should join its institutions.
The plan speaks of a Palestinian state within the pre-1967 war borders of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Seen as a blueprint for a national unity government, the document also endorses attacks on Israelis, but only within the territories.
The referendum would be viewed as a vote on the two-month-old Hamas government and its policy of refusing to recognise Israel, which has led the West to impose crippling sanctions on the Palestinian Authority.
The Palestinians have never held a referendum before, and legal experts say the vote would not be binding. But with polls showing widespread support for the plan, a referendum could give Abbas an important boost in his standoff with Hamas.