Aid block 'may ruin Palestinians'

The Hamas-led Palestinian Authority will collapse in poverty and insecurity if it continues to be starved of foreign aid, the World Bank has warned.

In a new report, it says failing to resume aid could "disable" the Authority and set back efforts to build a Palestinian state by "a dozen years".

The US and EU have frozen donations to the Palestinians, demanding Hamas drops calls for the destruction of Israel.

The warning comes as the US, UN, EU and Russia are to hold talks on the crisis.

The Middle East Quartet will meet in New York on Tuesday to look at ways of trying to resolve the crisis.

Many Palestinian government worker have not been paid since March.

There are food and petrol shortages in Gaza, whose borders are entirely controlled by Israel.

The World Bank, which has helped funnel donor aid to the Palestinians, said the failure to pay salaries could lead to a breakdown of discipline in the security forces and the civil service, eventually paralysing the government.

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US says world safer, despite 11,000 attacks in '05

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