The cash-strapped Palestinian government on Monday received pledges of nearly $300 million in new aid on top of more than $7 billion promised last year, Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said.
"We are grateful for the expressions of additional support over and beyond the Paris pledges," Fayyad told a news conference following a meeting that discussed aid to the Palestinians on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.
The new aid includes $150 million from the United States, $115 from the European Union and $15 million from Norway, chair of the committee that organized the meeting, the premier said.
At a Paris conference last December, donors pledged $7.7 billion in aid over the next three years, but the Palestinians say only a fraction of that money has been paid.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who attended the meeting, urged donor nations to follow through on their aid pledges to the Palestinian Authority.
"We need to make certain that everyone is paying attention to their Paris commitments to the Palestinians," Rice told reporters before the meeting.
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana also urged countries to deliver on their aid pledges.
Arab nations, in particular, have been reticent to hand over aid money to the Palestinians but Rice said they had been "very attentive" of late.
Last month, Saudi Arabia promised a $100-million cash boost to help Fayyad pay public sector salaries to the Palestinians.
Fayyad is pushing for more allocations of the funding to budget support to help him to pay government workers, something he has been struggling to do in recent months.
Delays in paying salaries are embarrassing for Fayyad, who was appointed with Western backing last year when President Mahmoud Abbas fired a Hamas government after the militants routed his forces and took over the Gaza Strip.
Of the $7.7 billion earmarked, the Palestinians have so far received a total of $1.36 billion for budget support, Fayyad said, but added this figure was set to rise by year end.
The new aid pledged on Monday was expected soon. "This will help in dealing with the liquidity problem. We're talking about a financing gap that must be bridged ..." Fayyad said.
Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said a budget gap of $320 million in 2008 remains, but noted the Palestinian government has been able to pay salaries and reimburse the bulk of its arrears.
Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the EU's external relations commissioner, said improvements on the ground for Palestinians are needed if the money is to be used effectively.
"It is most important that there is a change and betterment of access of movement, there should not be Israeli settlements and incursions," she said, adding that the EU would give 540 million euros ($791 million) this year to the Palestinians.
Fayyad said Israel needs to do more to ease restrictions on Palestinian trade and travel and stop settlement activity.
"The misery index is extremely high," in Gaza, Fayyad said, noting there were virtually no exports from the Gaza Strip and the few imports were not enough to support economic activity.
Aaron Abramovich, Director General of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, said
Israel is lifting as many roadblocks as it can. "But we need to protect against terror attacks," he said.
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