Abbas accepts Palestinian PM resignation

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, following a 20-minute meeting between the two fractious leaders. "Fayyad met Abbas for half an hour in the president's headquarters in Ramallah in the West Bank and officially handed him his written resignation," a Palestinian official told AFP. Abbas tasked Fayyad with the role of caretaker for the current government until a new prime minister is appointed, another official said. Fayyad formally submitted his resignation to President Abbas on Saturday, after a prepared letter on March 23 amid a backdrop of economic crisis and divisions with the West Bank’s ruling faction, Fatah. The two men have been at loggerheads amid mounting criticism of Fayyad's economic policies by Abbas's ruling Fatah movement, but Washington has lobbied hard for the 61-year-old, US-educated economist to stay on.