article: But his term in office has been dogged by the deep schism between his own Fatah movement in the West Bank and the militant Hamas movement, which controls the Gaza Strip. Mr Abbas, opposed to armed struggle and committed to pursuing an independent Palestinian state through negotiations, has enjoyed strong support from the international community. Under his leadership, US and European money has flowed into the West Bank to build up security forces which he has used to crack down on militant activity and Hamas's political infrastructure. But in the face of scant progress from years of negotiations, and the tough stance of the right-wing government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu elected in early 2009, his strategy has looked increasingly bankrupt to many Palestinians. A year after Mr Abbas won presidential elections, he suffered a major blow as Hamas gained a sweeping victory in legislative polls. A short-lived unity government was formed after months of wrangling, but fell apart in June 2007 as factional street battles broke out in Gaza and Hamas drove Fatah's security forces from the Strip. From then on, Mr Abbas ruled the West Bank only, essentially by presidential decree. And when his four-year term ended in January 2009, Hamas declared him illegitimate - although he argued that the Palestinian basic law called for presidential and legislative elections to be held at the same time, so he could legally stay in post for a further year until legislative polls due in January 2010. In November 2008, he also was elected "president of a future Palestinian state" by the Palestine Liberation Organisation. He had been chairman of the umbrella body - which represents Palestinian political factions (although not Hamas) and conducts negotiations with Israel - since the death of its previous leader, Yasser Arafat, in 2004. But the move was seen as a way of shoring up his authority. Mr Abbas has walked a delicate line between appeasing Israeli and US demands that he improve security and participate in peace negotiations, and popular Palestinian pressure for genuine political and economic progress. And he has, in the past year, undermined his already fragile poll ratings with misjudged comments and actions. Even Fatah supporters were angered when Mr Abbas was slow to condemn the punishing military assault that Israel launched on Gaza in December 2008, and criticised the Hamas rocket fire Israel said it was trying to end. And Mr Abbas's credibility suffered further when the PA initially agreed, under Israeli and US pressure, to allow the postponement of a UN vote on the Goldstone report which was heavily critical of Israel's conduct during the operation. But, under him and his appointed Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, the West Bank economy has shown signs of improvement while Gaza has suffered under a crippling Israeli-Egyptian blockade aimed at weakening Hamas. Born in Safed in British Mandate Palestine in 1935, he is one of the few surviving founder members of Fatah - the main political grouping within the PLO. In exile in Qatar during the late 1950s, he helped recruit a group of Palestinians
summary: Mahmoud Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, has led the Palestinian Authority since he was elected as its president in January 2005.