France will host a donors' conference in December to raise funds for laying the foundations of a Palestinian state, Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Wednesday, according to AP. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere and Kouchner will lead the conference, which was requested by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the three conference leaders said. An exact date has not yet been set, but Kouchner said it would fall about two weeks after a Mideast peace conference to be held in Annapolis, Maryland, in November or December. «This is a moment of hope for this process, but there is a lot of work to do,» said Blair, who is now a Mideast envoy for a coalition of four partners known as the Quartet: the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia. A Palestinian state is «not just a negotiation about territory,» but issues such as security, economic development and social, educational and health systems, he told reporters at the French Foreign Ministry. Blair was to hold meetings in Jerusalem next week toward drawing up a list of invitees to the Paris conference, Kouchner said. «This conference has the goal of mobilizing donors,» Kouchner said. «Annapolis is, of course, the first step _ the launch of this great hope _ but soon afterward it's necessary to take action.»
