Palestinian economy is path to peace: Brown

BETHLEHEM (AFP) - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown insisted on Sunday that increased economic investment in the Palestinian territories would be rewarded with the prize of peace in the Middle East.
On his first official visit as Premier to Israel and the occupied West Bank, and accompanied by the heads of top British firms, Brown stressed the need to boost the Palestinian economy to secure a lasting peace with Israel.
Brown visited Bethlehem for talks with Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and to urge both British and Palestinian business chiefs to work together to drag the West Bank and Gaza Strip out of poverty.
He promised further economic aid to the Palestinians, aimed at bolstering the US-backed Middle East peace process and called for a freeze on Israeli settlement building to bolster the Middle East peace process.
“We have pledged $500m for economic development in Palestine over three years to 2011,” Brown said after meeting Abbas.
“I can announce today a further commitment of $60m, 30m of which we will give as direct budgetary support, bringing our total support to the Palestinian Authority this year to $175m.”
In keeping with his “economic roadmap to peace,” Brown pledged support for a new mortgage authority which he said would help to finance some 30,000 new Palestinian homes and generate up to 50,000 new jobs.
He called for a freeze on Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, echoing criticism by the United States, saying their expansion had “made peace harder to achieve.”
Brown and Fayyad also attended the UK-Palestine Business Meeting, which brought together top British business chiefs such as the heads of BT, Lloyds TSB Bank and British Midland with local business leaders.