Palestinian authority pushes for boost in international aid

The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) will ask for 500 million U.S. dollars from the international donors next week to cover its financial shortage, a senior PNA official told Xinhua. Mohamed Abu Ramadan, the PNA minister of planning and administrative development said that a donor countries meeting which will be held in New York next Wednesday is the first of its kind since peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians were resumed. "Besides asking the donors to devote a financial aid to help end the shortage in our budget, the Palestinian side is to ask the meeting to put pressure on Israel to stop all its steps that obstruct the growth of the Palestinian economy," Abu Ramadan told Xinhua. He added that the development of the Palestinian economy is basically linked to stopping all the Israeli restrictions imposed on the Palestinian commercial crossings and the free movement of goods in-and-out of the Palestinian territories. The Palestinian delegation will present to the donors meeting a report which shows the Palestinian investment projects in areas (C) in the West Bank, which cover the sectors of agriculture, tourism, industry and infrastructure, said Abu Ramadan. The PNA have received around 500 million dollars from the international community in the past several months, but according to the official estimations, they need totally more than one billion dollars to solve its financial crisis.