BIR NABALA, Jan 7: Mahmoud Abbas cancelled an election rally in Jerusalem on Friday, objecting to an Israeli security presence, but vowed Palestinians would go there one day "as free people in their millions".

Mr Abbas has revived international hopes for Middle East peace after Yasser Arafat's death by promising to try to end attacks in Israeli cities and pursue peace talks with Tel Aviv after Sunday's presidential election, which he is expected to win easily. But he called off a plan to cap his campaign with an appearance in the centre of Arab East Jerusalem that he hoped would underline the Palestinian claim to it as the capital of the state they seek in Israeli-occupied territories.

Instead, Mr Abbas campaigned in a West Bank village on the edge of East Jerusalem and told a crowd of thousands that Palestinians need not be daunted by his cancellation.

"Today we did not go to Jerusalem, but tomorrow we will be in Jerusalem because Jerusalem is the eternal capital of the Palestinian people. Israeli walls and settlements will not prevent us reaching it," he said to roars of approval.

"We want our Jerusalem. Let us go to Jerusalem as free people in our millions!" said the veteran moderate, who took over the Palestine Liberation Organization after Mr Arafat died in November.

Yasser Arafat often called for "millions of martyrs to march to Jerusalem", a slogan Israel regarded as incitement to violence. Mr Arafat denied fomenting bloodshed. "God willing, we will visit Jerusalem later," Mr Abbas told reporters earlier in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

SECURITY: Officials close to Mr Abbas said he decided he did not want images of him being shadowed by Israeli security units in Jerusalem, undercutting his efforts to win over Palestinian militants who in the past have branded him a lackey of Israel.

They said Israeli officials had told Mr Abbas they would throw a heavy security cordon around him in East Jerusalem out of concern he might be assaulted by ultranationalist Jews.

Friday was the last day of campaigning. Polls showed Mr Abbas, a former deputy to Yasser Arafat, would win by a landslide. Another candidate, Mustafa Barghouthi, campaigned in East Jerusalem on Friday but was briefly detained when he tried to enter an Old City shrine holy to Muslims and Jews without a permit, a police spokesman said.

"I am coming here to pray in the mosque and now you are arresting me. You are arresting a presidential candidate with a permit to be in Jerusalem," Mr Barghouthi said as he was detained at an entrance to Jerusalem's walled Old City.

Israeli police spokesman Gil Kleiman said Mr Barghouthi had a permit for an election debate in an East Jerusalem hotel but not to appear at the Haram al Sharif. -Reuters