Fayyad said that he would announce the make-up of his new cabinet by noon (0900 GMT) on Sunday, to replace the Hamas-led unity government that president Mahmud Abbas fired after the Islamists' takeover of the Gaza Strip.

A political independent, the 55-year-old is a technocrat and former official at the International Monetary Fund and World Bank who won widespread praise for his efforts to bring greater transparency to murky Palestinian finances.

The bespectacled, immaculately-dressed Fayyad served as finance minister from 2002-2005 and then again in the short-lived Palestinian unity government formed in March, which Abbas sacked late on Thursday amid the Gaza violence.

He is a fluent English speaker who easily quotes Thomas Jefferson, the main author of the American Declaration of Independence, and passionately believes in the principles of transparency and accountability.

An articulate advocate of Palestinian rights and hopes, he has won praise from unlikely quarters who rarely agree on anything.

A spokesman for former hardliner Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon once said: "Everything that Fayyad is trying to do is well appreciated and is the right thing".

The liberal Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz dubbed him "everyone's favourite Palestinian."

"A professional and dedicated person" who combines "a great commitment to the Palestinian people with an integrity and a professionalism that is much needed," was how Fayyad was introduced before a speech at Washington's respected Brookings Institution think-tank in 2002.