Huh?

[Annie]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ap/20050207/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/rice

RAMALLAH, West Bank - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites) said Monday the United States will provide more than $40 million in aid to the Palestinians during the next three months.

Rice, at a news conference with the new Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, called it a "quick action program" that would have an "immediate positive impact."

She said the money would be used to create jobs and improve infrastructure.

"This is a time of hope, a time we can hope for a better day for the Palestinian and Israeli people both."

Rice's two-day visit to Israel and the West Bank headquarters of the newly elected Palestinian government is meant to nudge both sides to take hold of what Rice has called "a time of opportunity" and end four years of war.

It is the first time in years that a senior American official has gone to Ramallah, site of former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat (news - web sites)'s crumbling compound.