RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) - Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas is leading a chorus of opposition to calls by rival Hamas supremo Khaled Meshaal for a new leadership to replace the Palestine Liberation Organisation. The Damascus-based Meshaal this week said that the PLO " which has long been internationally recognised as the sole representative of the Palestinian people " had become obsolete. Meshaal's remarks threw the spotlight again on the protracted and sometimes Hamas-Fatah feud. The PLO, which was founded in 1964, includes Abbas's Fatah party and several other Palestinian factions but not the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) "The Palestine Liberation Organisation in its current form does not represent anymore a point of reference for the Palestinians," Meshaal said on Wednesday in the Qatari capital Doha. "It has become a centre of division for the Palestinian household." Meshaal said Hamas and other radical factions opposed to the policies of the Western-backed Abbas would set up "a new, national authority" representing all Palestinians groups. Abbas, who is also president of the Palestinian Authority and heads the negotiations with Israel, accused Meshaal of wanting to destroy the PLO. "Meshaal's statements regarding the establishment of a new authority to replace the Palestine Liberation Organisation is an exercise in time-wasting," Abbas said on Friday. "While he talks about establishing an organisation, he really wants to destroy what has been the voice (of the Palestinian people) for 44 years." Meanwhile, a rocket fired by Gaza fighters exploded near the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon on Saturday, the third since ceasefires ended Israel's devastating three-week war on the territory. The Israeli army said no casualties or damage were reported from the rocket strike, which came ahead of talks in Cairo on Sunday on efforts to shore up the fragile truce. Meanwhile, US Middle East envoy George Mitchell flew in to the Saudi capital late Saturday on the final leg of a regional tour aimed at reviving peace efforts, the official SPA news agency reported. Mitchell has also visited Egypt, Jordan and Israel and held talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas. Earlier on Saturday, Jordan's King Abdullah II met Mitchell in Amman and urged Washington to resume its efforts to clinch a two-state settlement between Israel and the Palestinians.