19 March 2008 - 12H30

US grants 150 million dollars to Palestinian Authority

The United States signed an agreement on Wednesday to give 150 million dollars (95 million euros) to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's West Bank government.

The funds are the first installment of 555 million dollars pledged at a donors' conference in Paris late last year intended to bolster the Palestinian Authority and underpin recently revived peace talks.

The money will go directly to the government's budget to help fill a massive fiscal shortfall left in the wake of a seven-year uprising and will contribute to a plan by Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad to reform the economy.

The agreement was signed by Fayyad, US Consul General Jake Walles and the US Agency for International Development's (USAID) local mission director R David Harden in the West Bank political capital of Ramallah.

Israel and the Palestinians relaunched peace talks in November under US stewardship but have made little progress since then.

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