Amin Makboul, secretary-general of Fatah's Revolutionary Council, said Abbas told the council in Ramallah late Wednesday that discussions to carry out the reshuffle have started.

Abbas also told the meeting that he will consult with Fayyad upon his return from an official visit to Japan, Makboul said.

He added that the "ministerial change is a national demand that Fatah strongly supports", but he denied that Fatah aimed to take more sovereign ministries through the change.

Makboul declined to say who will be asked by Abbas to form the new government.

Abbas formed the West Bank-based government in 2007 after the Hamas movement routed his security forces in Gaza. Fayyad, a former World Bank economist who has a very small political power base in Palestinian territories, assigned most of his portfolios to technocrats and independents. In May 2009, Fayyad reshuffled his Cabinet and tasked several top Fatah officials with heading ministries.

Hamas, which won the parliamentary elections in 2006, said it doesn't recognize Fayyad's reshuffled government.

Since then, top Fatah officials expressed their dissatisfaction against Fayyad's government saying it usurped the movement role in the Palestinian territories. They also accused Fayyad's government of controlling the financial resources of the movement.

"Fatah's role was not clear in the current government," Makboul said. The official said that Fatah voters want to see a leading role for their movement in the government.

He stressed the Fayyad's government should not interfere in politics. "It should only implement the Palestinian leadership's decisions and can't play a political role in lieu of the Palestine Liberation Organization."

Fayyad, who is pressing ahead with an ambitious program to build the institutions of the Palestinian state, which he expects to complete in 2011, would not mind Fatah taking any post except the Finance Ministry, which he holds and which is off-limits.

A recent Palestinian poll found that 43.7 percent of the respondents said security and safety improved under Fayyad's government.

The poll, published by the Jerusalem Media and Communications Center (JMCC), found that 31.7 percent of the respondents said they did not notice any change, and 19.6 percent said security and safety has deteriorated.