MIDDLE EAST:THE PALESTINIAN Authority has secured a breakthrough in its attempt to avoid a budgetary crisis this year after Kuwait made a firm commitment to begin paying millions of dollars in donations that it recently promised.
As leading powers gathered in London to assess the prospects for the Middle East peace process, Salam Fayyad, the Palestinian prime minister, announced that Kuwait would begin to hand over cash that would help plug a large gap in the authority's finances in the second half of this year.
At first glance, Kuwait's promise appears modest. It will immediately hand over $80 million of the $300 million (€51.97 million of €195 million) it has pledged to give over the next three years.
Mr Fayyad said he needed more than $800 million (€520 million) in immediate commitments if the authorities in the West Bank were to keep operating.
Even so, western diplomats said Kuwait's decision to begin handing over cash was an important signal.
This is because Arab nations have been unwilling to follow through on pledges they made five months ago to help breathe new life into the West Bank economy.
Many Arab states have refrained from making good on their pledges because they first want to see tangible evidence that Israel's occupation of the West Bank is coming to an end.
The funding boost for the Palestinian Authority came on a day that saw Israel firmly criticised by leading powers for its failure to freeze all settlement activity in the West Bank.
At a separate meeting in London, the Middle East quartet - comprising the US, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations - expressed "deep concern at continuing settlement activity" and called for a freeze.
Senior EU diplomats said the quartet communiqué was unusually harsh on the Israel government. In a statement, UN secretary general Ban Ki-Moon said "much more remained to be done to improve the situation on the ground in order to change the conditions of life in the West Bank and to keep the political process on track".
The quartet called on Israel to freeze all settlement activity, including natural growth, and to dismantle outposts erected since March 2001.