EU hopeful on Palestinian plan

LUXEMBOURG - The European Commission has acknowledged that details of an international aid plan for the Palestinians remained in dispute but said it hoped the scheme could be launched in a matter of weeks.

EU External Relations Commission Benita Ferrero-Waldner, charged last month by the Quartet of Middle East Peace brokers with drafting the plan, said the proposals covered provision of equipment, especially to the health sector, payment of utilities bills and allowances for essential service workers.

She told a news conference that EU foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg showed solid support for the plan, which she hoped to see reflected by EU leaders at a summit in Brussels on Thursday and Friday.

Speaking earlier to reporters, however, she accepted there was still disagreement within the Quartet -- the United States, the EU, Russia and the United Nations -- on proposed social allowances and assistance to those in greatest need.

"Here I think we still have to speak about the scope, about parameters, but I do hope we get endorsement today from the Council (of EU ministers) and I do hope in the future we get endorsement too from the Quartet and then we will go ahead.

"If we get the approval of both the Council and the Quartet I think end of June, beginning of July, we would be ready but it's a very complex issue," she said.

Major Western donors led by the United States froze direct aid to the Palestinian government after Hamas Islamists won January elections and refused to recognise Israel, renounce violence or embrace interim Israeli-Palestinian peace deals.

But fears of a humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian territories prompted them to consider ways of channelling essential aid to the most needy while bypassing Hamas.

Under the EU plan, the aid mechanism would provide up to $30 million a month in cash "allowances" directly to government employees who provide essential services, particularly health care, EU documents show.

However, Western diplomats in Jerusalem said on Sunday Washington had been pressing the European Union to adopt a US alternative calling for welfare payments to poor Palestinians, who could use the money to cover doctors' bills and buy food.

One EU official said it would be "difficult" to get the United States to participate in the EU plan, but another said discussions with the Americans were continuing. EU states themselves have differed on how broad the scope of the mechanism should be.

British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said London wanted the plan to concentrate on the health sector.

"People obviously have different points of view," she said, adding the important thing was to get help quickly and effectively to the Palestinian people.

"I think it's absolutely key that we make sure there is not a humanitarian crisis," she said.

- REUTERS