Mubarak says Gaza pledges should not be used as 'spoils of war'

The Egyptian President has warned in opening remarks to international donors at a conference to help rebuild the devastated Gaza Strip that pledges should not be treated as ‘spoils of war’ - a message to rival Palestinian factions not to squabble over the funds.

Hosni Mubarak also said reconstruction will depend on reaching long-term truce between Hamas and Israel, which Egypt is trying to mediate, and the opening up of Gaza’s border crossings, which have been largely closed since Hamas took over the territory.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband warned ‘there will be only limited physical reconstruction without political reconstruction’ and stressed that Palestinians ‘need a single government across the Occupied Territories’ - a direct appeal for rival Palestinian factions to hammer out a unity government.

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