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France urges aid boycott rethink US and EU diverge on Palestinians
(about 1 hour later)
France has said the international community should reconsider its aid boycott of the Palestinians if a national unity government is formed. The US has insisted the freeze on aid to the Palestinians will remain, despite European suggestions that it may be time to reconsider the policy.
The French foreign minister said such a move might help revive the peace process. France said the formation of Palestinian national unity government should prompt a rethink of the embargo, imposed after Hamas won elections.
The boycott was imposed after Hamas, which refuses to recognise Israel, won January's elections. Correspondents say these are signs of a growing rift between the US and the Europe Union over the issue.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced on Monday that he had reached a deal with Hamas on a new government. EU foreign ministers are meeting on Friday to discuss the freeze.
The proposed coalition would bring the radical Islamists of Hamas and the more moderate Fatah faction of Mr Abbas together in a government of national unity. The UN and aid agencies warn it has left the Palestinian economy close to collapse.
Palestinians are hoping this grouping will open the way for international aid donors to end the boycott of the Palestinian Authority. It was imposed after the Islamist militant organisation Hamas, which refuses to recognise Israel, won January's elections.
'Close to collapse' Hopes for government
But last Monday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced that he had reached a deal with Hamas on forming a new government of national unity.
The proposed coalition would bring the radical Islamists of Hamas and the more moderate Fatah faction of Mr Abbas together.
France's Douste-Blazy struck a different tone to the US
Speaking after talks in Ramallah with Mr Abbas, French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said a "Palestinian government of national unity... should lead to a re-examination of the policies of the international community toward the Palestinian government in terms of aid and contacts".Speaking after talks in Ramallah with Mr Abbas, French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said a "Palestinian government of national unity... should lead to a re-examination of the policies of the international community toward the Palestinian government in terms of aid and contacts".
He said such a move could be used to push forward the peace process.He said such a move could be used to push forward the peace process.
On Wednesday, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said any new Palestinian government would have to accept international demands to renounce violence and recognise Israel's right to exist, something Hamas has so far refused to do. The European foreign ministers meeting in Brussels is expected to examine the case for lifting the embargo.
The Palestinian Prime Minister, Ismail Haniya of Hamas, criticised the remarks as an attempt to undermine the efforts to form a coalition government. But in Washington, state department spokesman Sean McCormack insisted nothing had changed.
He urged the European Union to lead the way in easing the aid boycott. He said it was "not at all clear that the Palestinians have come to an agreement on a unity government" and said if they wanted the boycott to be lifted, they should "meet the conditions that are laid out for them".
EU foreign ministers meeting on Friday are expected to voice support for the agreed unity government and extend an aid mechanism that bypasses Hamas, allowing a small amount of international funding to reach Palestinians. Those conditions - set out by so-called Mid-East Quartet of the US, EU, UN and Russia - are recognition of Israel, renunciation of violence and recognition of previous peace accords with the Israelis.
The UN has warned that the aid boycott has left the Palestinian economy close to collapse. 'Tough decisions'
Mr McCormack said "the Palestinian people... need to understand why they are in the situation in which they find themselves now.
"They are in that situation because of the Hamas government, its failure to make the tough decisions to provide for the Palestinian people and to be able to govern effectively."
The BBC's Jonathan Beale at the state department says clear divisions are now emerging between the US and Europe on this issue.
He says the US shares Israeli objections to having Hamas represented at all in the Palestinian government.
Friday's meeting in Brussels will be followed next week by a meeting of members of the Quartet, where differences are likely to come to a head, our correspondent says.