In UN week, Saudi says to ease Palestinian crisis

Saudi Finance Minister Ibrahim Alassaf called Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad to tell him his government would transfer the funds, the WAFA agency reported.

A shortfall in funding from Arab states including Saudi Arabia had been identified as the cause of the crisis which has highlighted the authority's vulnerability as President Mahmoud Abbas prepares to press the Palestinians' statehood agenda at the U.N. General Assembly meeting in New York.

Last week, both the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank identified the authority's financial crisis as a danger to the state-building program which Fayyad's administration has led over the last two years.

In the last three months, the authority has twice failed to pay salaries to its 150,000 employees on time and in full.

The success of the state-building plan was one of the reasons cited by Palestinian officials for their decision to go to the United Nations, despite U.S. and Israeli opposition.

The Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self government in parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, remains reliant on foreign aid to fill a deficit projected at $900 million this year.