Appointed Prime Minister in the Palestinian Authority Salam Fayyad said an end to the Palestinian factional split could only be rectified by a turn at the ballot boxes, the Jerusalem daily newspaper Al-Hayyat reported Friday.

An interview published by the newspaper quoted Fayyad as saying he believed the ballot box should be the Fatah-Hamas mediator, with Palestinians and the international community agreeing to accept the results.

On elections, Fayyad said he had no ambition to head the PNA if current President Mahmoud Abbas followed through on threats to resign, and denied rumors he - as an independent politician - had grievances with the Fatah party.

"The PA is the most important component in the project of state-building," Fayyad told the paper, adding that he rejected calls for its dissolution, calling on the international community to support the Palestinian people in their steadfastness.

Fayyad was the principle actor behind the two-year state-building project announced in August of 2009, set up as a track parallel to peace talks, with the aim of constructing the institutions of a Palestinian state by summer 2011. The approach has been embraced by Europe and the United States, which have both heavily funded efforts to increase police and justice sector capabilities, road construction and education.

The West Bank prime minister told the newspaper that his current focus was unity, saying a state could not be achieved without it.