Speaking at a meeting of the Palestinian
Liberation Organisation and his Fatah party, he said: "I say that if
negotiations have failed we will go to the United Nations for membership.
"Until now there have been no new incentives to return to negotiations."
The meeting, in the West Bank city of Ramallah where Mr Abbas has his
headquarters, was called to make preparations for the UN campaign.
Mr Abbas had indicated that the Palestinians would be willing to give up the
September bid for recognition of a Palestinian state if long dormant peace
talks with Israel could be resurrected.
While many states have indicated they will support the bid, including France
and Britain, it has faced strong opposition from Israel, the US and Germany,
who said any progress toward a Palestinian state must be made through a
negotiated agreement.
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said that granting UN membership to a
Palestinian state could actually help bring the sides back to the
negotiating table.
"We do not think that there is a contradiction between the two demands,"
he said. "This measure is inevitable if (the international community)
wants to preserve the peace process."
Peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians ground to a halt in September
2010 when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refused to renew a
partial freeze on settlement construction in the occupied West Bank.
The Palestinians then refused to return to talks as long as Israel built on
land they want for a future state.
Instead, they decided to go to the UN General Assembly in September to ask for
membership and recognition of a Palestinian state in the borders that
existed before the 1967 Six-Day War.
One of the stumbling blocks to a renewal of talks has been a recent unity deal
between Abbas's Fatah party and Gaza's Islamist Hamas rulers after years of
enmity.
Israel has refused to deal with Hamas, or any government in which it is a
partner, for as long as it calls for Israel's destruction.
The unity deal has also run into domestic difficulties, with the two
Palestinian sides failing to agree on a prime minister for an interim
government.
Hamas has vociferously rejected Abbas's candidate, incumbent Prime Minister
Salam Fayyad.
Talks between Abbas and Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal on a new Palestinian
cabinet, set for Cairo last week, were indefinitely postponed.
But Abbas indicated on Sunday he was not giving up on reconciliation and would
be prepared to go to the Gaza Strip.
"For a long time I said I would go to Gaza, and now I say I am still
determined to go to Gaza and it will be a surprise for all," he said.
