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Donors pledge $7.4bn
17/12/2007 21:32 - (SA)
Paris - International donors pledged $7.4bn to the Palestinians on Monday at a conference described by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as the "last hope" to save their government from bankruptcy.
"The real winner is the Palestinian state," French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner told AFP.
Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad had formally asked donors meeting in Paris for $5.6bn by 2010 to help develop a viable economy for a future Palestinian state.
"We are way ahead of this amount, that's the most important thing," Fayyad confirmed.
The promises were made at a one-day conference convened to agree a package of aid to stabilise the Palestinian economy and shore up the peace process with Israel - jumpstarted in the US city of Annapolis last month. Facing 'a total catastrophe'
"Without this support, without the payment of aid that will allow the Palestinian treasury to fulfill its role, we will be facing a total catastrophe in the West Bank and Gaza," Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas had earlier warned delegates.
Islamist group Hamas, which seized control of the Gaza Strip in June and was not invited to the Paris conference or the Annapolis meeting, labelled Monday's conference a "dangerous conspiracy" aimed at dividing the Palestinians.
"We support all forms of aid, financial or otherwise, to the Palestinian people. "But the Paris conference is coating poison with honey and is a dangerous conspiracy," Hamas spokesperson Fawzi Barhum said in a statement released in Gaza. 'A leaking bucket'
Some humanitarian groups questioned the benefit of a massive aid package.
In London, the development charity Oxfam warned donors were pouring cash "into a leaking bucket", arguing that aid efforts already in place were being seriously hampered by Israeli restrictions on movement.
- AFP
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