RRMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Thursday that an election promised by September would not be held if Hamas refused to allow voting in the Gaza Strip. The election promise was issued on Saturday by the Palestine Liberation Organisation in an apparent bid to head off any wave of popular protest fanned by the uprisings elsewhere in the Middle East. But Abbas said he could not divide Palestinian territory. "Elections should include the West Bank and Gaza, and without that we cannot hold elections," the president told a news conference. Hamas controls the Gaza Strip where 1.5 million Palestinians live. Abbas's Palestinian Authority holds sway in the West Bank, home to 2.5 million. The two territories, which would form a single state under a peace treaty with Israel, are separated by Israeli land. Abbas's comment, following talks with visiting East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta, seemed to be aimed at putting the blame squarely on Hamas for refusing to let the Palestinian people chose a new leadership.