The Japanese government on Sunday signed an agreement with the United Nations to provide $4.2 million in food aid to Palestinian refugees in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The aid aims to help Palestinian refugees in the West Bank and Gaza Strip who have been deeply hurt by more than a year of international financial sanctions imposed on the Palestinian government because of the militant Hamas group's refusal to recognize Israel and renounce violence.

Last month, the UN said the economic crisis had left food resources insecure for almost half the people in the Palestinian territories.

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Japanese envoy Shigenobu Kato signed the deal with the secretary-general of the UN agency that deals with Palestinian refugees, UNWRA, at the Japanese Embassy in Amman, the kingdom's official Petra news agency said.

Kato said Japan was committed to improving the living conditions of the Palestinian refugees and would work with the concerned parties to support the Palestinian people to achieve permanent peace in the region. Japan has provided more than $529 million to UNRWA since 1953.

On Sunday, Israel and the United States ruled out a resumption of financial transfers to the Palestinians following the formation of a new national unity government until it meets their demands.

The World Bank estimates 70 percent of Gaza's 1.4 million people live in poverty, defined as living on less than $2.30 a day.

U.S. official: American aid ban on PA government still in place
The United States said Sunday that its ban on direct aid to the Palestinian government would remain in place, but broke ranks with Israel by authorizing contacts with some members of the new Hamas-Fatah administration.

The U.S. consulate in Jerusalem said Washington would continue to shun Hamas ministers in the power-sharing cabinet, but permit contacts with non-Hamas members on a case-by-case basis, depending on developments.

The decision to allow some contacts marked a shift in U.S. policy and a break with Israel, which has vowed to boycott the new government in its entirety, including non-Hamas ministers.

Earlier on Sunday, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert ruled out resuming talks on
Palestinian statehood with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and urged the international community to shun the government established on Saturday.

Olmert's cabinet approved his policy by a vote of 19 in favor, none against, and two abstentions. Olmert called on the international community Sunday not to be misled by the formation of the unity government and uphold its boycott of the Palestinians.

Palestinians hope the partnership between Abbas's secular Fatah faction and Islamist Hamas will stop factional fighting and ease a crippling aid embargo that has increased poverty.

But Micaela Schweitzer-Bluhm, spokeswoman for the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem, said the year-old U.S. ban on direct aid to the Palestinian government would remain in place until it recognized Israel and renounced violence as demanded by the Quartet of Middle East mediators.

"This must continue to be the measure for any support," she said. "There's no change in our assistance policy. But we remain committed to providing assistance to the Palestinian people and we'll continue to do that through the UN and other organizations."

Israel has also vowed not to hand over to the unity government tax revenues it has been withholding.

Norway reportly to quit boycott
Meanwhile, Norway reportedly intends to end the political and economic boycott of the Palestinian government, Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg was quoted on Sunday as saying.

"We will end all self-imposed restrictions in the political and economic contacts with the Palestinian government," the Aftenposten daily quoted Stoltenberg as telling a Social Democrat party gathering.

He called the formation of the new unity government of rival Palestinian groups Fatah and Hamas a "courageous decision."

Norway had introduced the boycott alongside the United States and the European Union one year ago, when the radical Palestinian Hamas group formed a government following their election victory.

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