Palestinian economy is path to peace: Brown

“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.

Brown told them that increasing prosperity would “make the costs of ever returning to violence so high and so unacceptable that the vast majority will not want to have anything to do with those who preach violence.”

He added: “There is an economic prize before us.

“But there is also a double dividend: there is a real chance to build up not just the peace process but the ingenuity and skills and the commitment of the Palestinians to build prosperity right across the region.