Palestinian PM says Iran pledges $250 mln in aid

DUBAI, Dec 11 (Reuters) Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said Iran had pledged about 250 million dollars in financial aid to Palestinians in 2007 to help ease an economic crisis caused by a Western aid boycott.

''My visit to Tehran has achieved direct financial support with a sum of about a quarter billion dollars,'' he said after a visit to Iran in a tour of Islamic nations.

''They offered a number of projects that represent direct financial support to the Palestinian government and people,'' he told Al Arabiya television in remarks aired today.

The overall sum included 120 million dollar in direct funds to the Palestinian government.

He said the Iranian government also pledged to pay the salaries of 100,000 state employees for six months at the rate of 0 a month and to pay a similar amount to 3,000 fishermen over the same period.

Last month a Palestinian minister said Iran had donated 0 million to the Palestinian Hamas-led government and said it was ready to give more.

The Hamas-led Palestinian government has been brought to the brink of financial collapse due to a Western aid boycott over its refusal to recognise Israel, renounce violence and embrace interim Israeli-Palestinian peace deals.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev criticised Haniyeh's visit to Iran. ''Palestinian leaders who have chosen to align themselves with the extremists in Tehran are unfortunately doing their own people a disservice by acting to exclude the possibility of political progress,'' he said.

Iran's Islamic government has never recognised Israel and last year Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called for Israel to be ''wiped off the map''.

Earlier this month, Haniyeh said Qatar, a U.S. ally, pledged to pay the salaries of 40,000 Palestinian education workers for several months.

REUTERS PDM RN2158