Jerusalem: Israel will soon transfer $100 million in withheld Palestinian tax revenues to President Mahmoud Abbas, a Palestinian official said on Thursday.
Senior Abbas aide Saeb Erekat said the money would be deposited in the president's bank account and would be given to private bodies, without elaborating which ones, and also used for humanitarian purposes. He said the transfer would occur soon but did not give a timeframe.
Israeli officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the money would be given on Friday and that some of it was meant to help fund a US-backed security programme. Erekat would not comment on the matter.
"Its designated use is for humanitarian needs, as defined by the Palestinian president, and for the implementation of recommendations" by US Lieutenant-General Keith Dayton, who is overseeing an American-led programme to strengthen Abbas's presidential guard, a senior Israeli official said.
The official did not say what specific security projects the tax money would be used for.
The transfer of funds, expected by Friday morning according to an Israeli official, would be the first such Israeli payment since the militant Islamic Hamas formed its government in March.
Abbas was to head to Syria meet the supreme Hamas leader, Khaled Mashaal, aiming at forging a unity government to end a punishing international aid boycott. The talks have sputtered for months amid deadly clashes between forces loyal to the two sides, killing 35 people, but the fact that the two leaders were meeting was a sign that an agreement might be finally at hand, though key obstacles remained.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has been under US pressure to take steps to strengthen Abbas, a moderate and his Fatah-dominated presidential guard, which have been involved in a power struggle with the governing militant group Hamas, which has been building up its own "Executive Force."
During his first formal meeting with Abbas on December 23, Olmert promised to hand over the funds and to remove West Bank roadblocks.
Since Abbas's meeting with Olmert, the Palestinian president's allies have complained that Israel has been undercutting him by taking its time to deliver on its promises.
Abbas, who met US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Sunday, asked Washington to intervene. Rice held talks with Olmert on Monday in Jerusalem.
