EU:The EU will consider boosting emergency aid to the Palestinian people and resuming direct aid to a new internationally acceptable Palestinian government.
External relations commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner made the pledge after EU foreign ministers welcomed a decision last week by the rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah to form a government of national unity.
"It seems that steps are now really being taken towards a national unity government," said Ms Ferrero-Waldner, who added that the commission wanted to expand its emergency aid programme that bypasses the current Hamas-led government.
This temporary assistance scheme helps pay for energy supplies, hospital running costs and unemployment allowances. It was set up when the international community suspended aid to the Palestinian Authority following Hamas's victory in elections last year. The EU is now considering extending the scheme to include projects to boost economic development, bolster Palestinian institutions not controlled by Hamas, and provide aid to fight corruption.
Ms Ferrero-Waldner also held out the prospect of a resumption of direct aid to a new government if it agreed to recognise Israel, renounce violence and respect peace accords. "When it becomes possible to re-engage with a national unity government . . . we could then hopefully resume support to the Palestinian Authority, ministers and ministries and agencies, from which we have had to distance ourselves in the last year," she said.
Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern said he supported a widening of the EU's emergency aid mechanism to relieve humanitarian suffering in the region.
Other EU member states were more cautious. The German foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, said EU ministers would study the accord "very carefully" before making any decision to lift economic sanctions against the Palestinian government.
EU foreign ministers also agreed to implement UN-imposed sanctions on Iran over its nuclear programme. However, Mr Steinmeier, who chaired the meeting in Brussels because Germany holds the six-month EU presidency, also said Iran was showing "new ambition" to negotiate an end to the dispute over its nuclear programme.
"We both have the impression that in Iran there is a new ambition to return to the negotiating table," said Mr Steinmeier, who attended talks with Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani at the weekend. "In the course of the next few days, we will have to sound out whether they [ Iran] can pursue that line," he added.
The sanctions are limited to areas associated with Tehran's nuclear programme. Calls by Washington for tougher financial sanctions have so far gone unheeded by EU member states.