Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement and five other factions vowed Thursday to continue their uprising as a "strategic option" alongside peace talks with Israel.

"After 10 years of fruitless negotiations with Israel, the Intifada is a strategic option for the Palestinian people with the aim of reaching national liberation and a viable independent state," the groups said in a statement issued at a meeting in east Jerusalem ahead of the February 6 Israeli election for prime minister.

The groups declared the importance of continuing the Intifada or uprising, that has so far claimed the lives of almost 400 people, but said they "have no objection to the principle of negotiation."

However, they demanded peace talks continue without the sponsorship of the United States, which they accused of favouring Israel.

Besides Fatah, the meeting included the Damascusbased Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which has opposed the current peace process.

Palestinian officials have warned the election of hardliner Ariel Sharon, who has a commanding lead over Prime Minister Barak in opinion polls, would be a disaster for the peace process.

Meanwhile, Israel's right-wing prime ministerial frontrunner Ariel Sharon told a Spanish newspaper he would keep Jerusalem "unified under Israeli rule in any agreement" with the Palestinians, in an interview published Thursday.

Sharon, who is leading in the polls ahead of next Tuesday's elections, also told El Mundo that he had ruled out any Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights, seized from Syria in 1967.

Listing his conditions for peace in the Middle East, Sharon said: "First of all, Israel must maintain its sovereignty over the whole city of Jerusalem, including the Temple Mount."

Secondly, he said, was the proviso that "the Jordan Valley, including the Dead Sea, constitutes Israel's eastern security zone."

"Thirdly, there will be no return of Palestinian refugees to Israeli territory" he added, insisting fourthly that "Israel will not withdraw from the Golan Heights under the terms of a peace agreement with Syria."

Lastly, Sharon said he was opposed to a plan to give the Palestinians an area of Israel's Negev desert in compensation for Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories.

Such a move, he said, would "put the territory into the hands of armed Palestinian forces which would turn 15 of our villages into front line posts."

Sharon said, "I'm aware that to achieve peace we have to make painful sacrifices," without spelling out what those might be.

But the prime-ministerial race-leader said that he would not allow such sacrifices to undermine "the rights of Jews to live safely in their own land".

"Israel has recognised the Arabs' rights to self determination. It is time that they recognise Israel's right to the same" Sharon said.