EU step to resume Palestinian aid

Mr Fayyad, left, is a former official at the World Bank

The EU has signed an agreement to train officials in the Palestinian Authority's Finance Ministry, so that direct aid can resume in the future.

An official said this agreement was to provide technical assistance, not financial aid.

The Palestinian Authority has been under an aid embargo since the militant movement Hamas won elections last year.

The BBC's Alix Kroeger in Brussels says the step is part of an EU bid to resume aid without breaking its rules.

It cannot provide aid to Hamas officials because the group is on the EU's list of terrorist organisations.

The EU and the other major donors have set up a mechanism to bypass the Palestinian Authority but continue to pay for health services and fuel costs.

Earlier this year, the EU signalled it would be prepared to work with some ministers it considered reliable, including Palestinian Finance Minister Salam Fayyad.

On a visit to Brussels, Mr Fayyad, a former World Bank official, said training would be useful to prepare officials for the resumption of direct aid, after a year without it.

The EU got agreement from other donors, including the Americans, for the offer of technical assistance.

An official in Brussels said: "We are not giving them money to do other things, we are training them, we are giving them technical knowledge of something."