Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has resigned from his post as head of the Palestine Liberation Organization's (PLO) executive committee.

Over half of the 18-member committee also stepped down along with Abbas, AFP quoted a PLO official, Wassel Abu Yussef, as saying on Saturday, without elaborating about the reason.

Yussef added that the Palestine National Council (PNC) is set to meet in a month's time in order to elect a new executive committee and that the resignations would take effect once they meet.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat was elected as the PLO’s secretary general before the announcement of Abbas’ resignation, he said.

The executive committee acts on behalf of Palestinians in the occupied territories and is the PLO’s uppermost decision-making body.