Fayad, US Consul General Jake Walles sign paper in Ramallah following 2007 Paris donor summit.
By JPOST.COM STAFFjacob walles 224.88(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
The United States signed an agreement on Wednesday to give 150 million dollars to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's West Bank government, Agence France Presse reported.
The funds are the first installment of 555 million dollars pledged by Western countries at a donors' conference in Paris late last year intended to strengthen 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 Authority Prime Minister Salaam Fayad in his plans to reform the failing Palestinian economy.
The agreement was signed by Fayad, US Consul General Jake Walles and the US Agency for International Development's (USAID) local mission director R. David Harden in Ramallah.
Walles said Fayad asked for the additional assistance last month to help with the Palestinian budget.
A statement from the US Consulate in Jerusalem stated that American aid to the Palestinians in 2008 now totals over $700 million and exceeds the amount the US pledged at a donors conference in December 2007.
Israel and the Palestinians relaunched peace talks in November under US stewardship but have made little progress since then.
US President George W. Bush expressed the hope that Israel and the Palestinians will reach a peace agreement by 2008, a goal which both Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Abbas admitted was highly unlikely.
AP contributed to this report.
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