Int'l donors to meet in Paris for Palestine aid push
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PARIS, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- International donors are ready to meet here on Monday to pledge their financial support to Palestinians, a key follow-up to the newly relaunched peace process between Palestine and Israel.
Representatives from more than 90 countries and international organizations are expected to attend the one-day meeting, the largest international donors' conference since Paris held a similar one more than a decade ago, according to the French Foreign Ministry.
The conference will bring together the world major players in the Middle East peace process, including the United Nations, Russia, the European Union and the United States, the so-called Middle East quartet.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, the EU High Representative for Foreign Policy Javier Solana and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice are among the high-profile participants.
The Palestinian delegation, led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, is seeking 5.6 billion U.S. dollars in aid for the next three years to relieve economic hardship in Palestine, based on a development plan produced by the acting Palestinian government in West Bank.
Abbas has been confident that the ambitious goal could be reached at the Paris conference. His planning minister Samir Abdullah said ahead of the meeting that the international community is expected to show "full support" to their appeal.
Till now, Washington is said to pledge more than 500 million U.S. dollars, while Britain and Germany may be ready to provide 500million U.S. dollars and 200 million euros (289 million U.S. dollars)respectively. France, the host, has not disclosed how much the country is going to pay.
Abdullah said he also expected Arab countries could be generous in supporting Palestine at the conference.
Of the billions of dollars, 70 percent will be first used to fill up the huge budget deficit of the Palestinian government, with the remaining used for development.
Aside from aid pledges, the conference is designed as an important platform to give political impetus to the peace process between Palestine and Israel, which was renewed last month at an international meeting hosted by the U.S. in Annapolis, Maryland.
After seven years of diplomatic deadlock and continuous violence, Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert agreed to negotiate a peace treaty before the end of 2008 at their Annapolis meeting.
Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said the Paris donors'
conference was a result of the Annapolis meeting.
Ahead of Monday's conference, Abbas met in Paris Sunday with the Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, with issues of security and barriers at the top of their agenda.
Livni will face international pressure at the conference for his country to lift restrictions on the movement of Palestinians. Israel now operates 550 checkpoints in the West Bank, citing security concerns, which the World Bank said chokes the development of Palestinian economy.
The Middle East quartet is also scheduled to meet on the sidelines of the conference, which will be opened by French President Nicolas Sarkozy and co-chaired by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, peace envoy for the quartet.
