Donor countries recognized on Wednesday that the "Palestinian Authority (PA) is above the threshold of a functioning state, an assessment that was hailed as a "birth certificate" for a Palestinian state by PA premier Salam Fayyad, dpa reported.
In recent months, the World Bank, the United Nations and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have certified that Fayyad state-building plans are on track for completion in mid-2011.
"We can today conclude that the Palestinian Authority is above the threshold of a functioning state," Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store said after chairing a meeting of the Ad Hoc Liason Committee, a panel of donor countries to the Palestinians.
"It amounts to a birth certificate for the reality of Palestinian statehood," Fayyad told reporters after the talks in Brussels.