US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said today she would ask the US Congress for tens of millions of dollars to strengthen the security forces of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
"We will request funding to support the security reform (of Abbas's forces) and I think we will get support," said Rice in an interview, adding that the aid would be in the range of tens of millions of dollars.
The funding request comes as tensions are at their highest in a decade in the Palestinian territories, with government unity talks stalled and the militant group Hamas accusing Abbas of trying to start a civil war.
The United States wants to ensure that Abbas, whose Fatah party was trounced by Hamas in elections last January, emerges victorious in any power struggle with Hamas and has been saying for months that more needs to be done to boost his forces.
But Rice cautioned this could take some time.
"You can't build security forces overnight to deal with the kind of lawlessness that is there in Gaza which largely derives from an inability to govern," she said.
"Their (the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority) inability to govern, of course, comes from their unwillingness to meet international standards," she added.
State Department officials have been discussing the request in recent weeks with key staff on Capitol Hill, trying to convince them the money will not reach Hamas.
"We are going to adopt extremely concrete and tight measures to make sure that the money is going to the right places," said Rice.
The United States, the European Union and others regard Hamas as a terrorist group and have cut off direct aid to the group.