European Union foreign ministers have approved a temporary suspension of aid to the Palestinian Authority. Ministers said after a meeting in Luxembourg that some of the 500 million euro ($600 million) cut in funding to the Palestinian government would now be channelled via humanitarian aid organisations.Jack Straw, the British foreign secretary, said: "We do not wish to punish the Palestinian people for the decision they freely made to elect a Hamas-dominated government. At the same time, Hamas has got to recognise that being elected as a government, democratically, they have responsibilities as democrats to do what everybody else has to do as democrats, which is to eschew violence."
Javier Solana, the EU foreign policy chief, said that the Palestinians were not being abandoned and that the EU "will do business as usual with the Palestinian people". However, Ben Bot, the Dutch foreign minister, said: "The Palestinian people have opted for this government, so they will have to bear the consequences."