Former Palestinian security commander Mohammed Dahlan, who was apparently elected Tuesday to Fatah's Central Committee, said that he would allow no one to negotiate with Israel unless a deadline for peace talks is announced in advance, according to Israel Radio.

Fatah elected a group of younger leaders to its top council, according to preliminary voting results.

"This election is setting a new future for the movement, a new democratic era," added the 47-year-old Dahlan.

Fatah's first conference in two decades, while plagued by the movement's characteristic wrangling and intrigue, appeared to rejuvenate the pre-eminent Palestinian organization at a critical moment, weeks before US President Barack Obama is to unveil a comprehensive plan to achieve Israeli-Palestinian peace.

The results indicate that pragmatic leaders who never left the Palestinian territories - and who often spent years in Israeli jails, worked with Israelis and speak Hebrew - won out over exiled hard-liners from places like Lebanon and Syria.

Also elected were Marwan Barghouti, a 50-year-old Tanzim leader now jailed by Israel and seen as a likely future president, and Jibril Rajoub, 56, a former aide to the late Yasser Arafat who led several crackdowns against Hamas.

Rajoub said the outcome represented a break from the movement's previous leaders, many of whom are in their 70s.

"This is a coup against a leadership that had monopolized the movement for a long time without even presenting a report about its work," he said.

All told, 14 of the Central Committee's 18 elected seats went to new members, with the remaining four going to incumbents from the old guard. Palestinian Authority President Abbas, also a member, will appoint four others.

The final results, along with the results of the vote for the 80 elected seats of Fatah's 120-seat Revolutionary Council, which together with the Central Committee sets the movement's policies, were expected later Tuesday. Abbas remains the group's overall leader.

Fatah held its last conference in 1989 in Tunisia, some 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometers) away from the delegates' hoped-for homeland.
Since that time, Fatah's reputation has been tainted by rampant corruption, electoral and territorial losses to Hamas and its failure to deliver a Palestinian state despite decades of both fighting and negotiations.

While some Palestinians welcomed the new leadership, others doubted Fatah's ability to change.

"The old generation or the new, they're all the same," said Abu Qusei Asaf, 35, a Bethlehem bookstore owner. "The struggle for them is nothing, just papers on the table. They all fight over seats but don't help the people."

Fatah's fortunes have also been boosted by recent gains in the West Bank economy, thanks in part to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decision to remove roadblocks and loosen restrictions.

Interviewed on Israel Radio, Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilna'i said he hoped Fatah's new leaders could work toward a peace deal, which he said was "the only way we can get out of the situation we have been stuck in now for three generations."