Jerusalem - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Sunday called for an end to Israeli settlements and pledged additional financial assistance and support for the Palestinian Authority. Brown was speaking in Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank at a joint press briefing with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
"We have a clear goal before us: a peace founded on 1967 borders with a viable Palestinian state alongside a secure Israel, Jerusalem the capital of both nations," Brown said after meeting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
"The question is whether we can seize the opportunity that has been offered by Annapolis to take the next crucial steps," Brown said, referring to US-hosted Middle East peace talks in Annapolis, Maryland, late last year.
"There are undoubted problems: the freezing of settlements; stopping of the violence," he added. Brown also described terrorism a "major obstacle" to Palestinian statehood.
Britain, he said, would provide an additional 60 million dollars in financial support to the Palestinian Authority, half of which would go directly into its budget.
"We have pledged 500 million dollars for economic development in Palestine over three years to 2011," Brown said.
Britain would also provide support to help boost security for Palestinians and host an investment conference in London later this year, Brown said.
Abbas thanked Brown for the financial support and initiatives that focus on the Palestinian economy. He said the British leader's visit comes at a "time when we see improvement" with regard to peace negotiations and the truce between Israel and militant Palestinian groups along the Gaza Strip.
Brown was due to meet Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert later Sunday.
Brown received a red carpet welcome in Israel earlier Sunday, with President Shimon Peres calling him "one of the most respected leaders of our time in my judgement."
His two-day visit to Israel and the West Bank is his first since he took office a year ago. He is scheduled to hold talks with both Israeli and Palestinian officials, with a view to advancing the peace process.
Brown's talks with Israeli officials are also to include the Iranian nuclear programme and Israel's ongoing peace efforts with the Palestinians and Syria, according to Israeli media reports. In Iraq on Saturday, Brown had met with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
Peres received Brown and his wife at the presidential residence in Jerusalem after they toured Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial centre early Sunday.
The Israeli president praised Brown for his record and philosophy and highlighted that the former British chancellor of the exchequer had "raised the British economy to unprecedented heights."
Brown, in turn, said he felt it was a privilege to meet Peres, saying: "I know of the immense contribution you have made to the history of this country in the many roles you have played."
"Nothing prepares you for what we see here," the British leader had said at the memorial site, where he laid a wreath earlier. "This is the story of the atrocities that should have been prevented, the killings that should never have happened, the truth that everybody who loves humanity should know."
Brown is expected to press the Palestinian leadership to improve security in the understanding that Britain would then apply pressure on Israel to lift restrictions on the occupied territories.
Brown has met most officials representing parties to the Middle East conflicts on previous occasions in London.
He is also to meet members of the business community in Israel. Brown followed his surprise stop Saturday in Iraq by flying on to Tel Aviv in the evening.
Brown is to address the Knesset - the first British prime minister to do so - before his departure on Monday afternoon.
