Rice meets with Palestinian finance minister

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met Tuesday with Palestinian Finance Minister Salam Fayyad on economic distress in the West Bank and Gaza. Fayyad disclosed the meeting at a news conference at the Palestine Center a few blocks from the State Department. He said they talked about ways to ease the Palestinians' economic problems including changes in its banking system. The aim is to regulate and simplify distribution of contributions from around the world. "Things are evolving in a positive way," he said.