Jerusalem, Dec 15: In addition to the US' annual economic aid to Israel, President George W Bush supports granting special financial package to the Jewish state which is facing an economic crisis. Jewish leaders who had a discussion with Bush last week were quoted as saying by a media report that though the US President did not go into details about Israel's recent request for special economic assistance, there was little doubt about his commitment to grant the aid.
Israel has made a request asking for a four billion dollar special defence grant as well as American agreement to confer loan guarantees of between eight to 10 billion dollars.
The special assistance package would be in addition to the United States' annual aid package to Israel -- 2.16 billion dollars in defence assistance and 480 million dollar for economic-civilian spheres.
A delegation consisting of senior Israeli officials will leave for Washington soon to discuss the request with US officials, the 'Ha'aretz' daily said.
While Israel is the largest recipient of US foreign aid, Jordan and Egypt, which have signed peace treaties with Israel, also receive substantial US economic aid.
During the conversation with Jewish leaders, Bush also said that the US administration's middle east policy was based on his June 24 speech, the paper reported.
In the speech Bush called on the Palestinians to replace Yasser Arafat with a democratic leader who is "uncompromising with terror", as a condition for creation of a provisional Palestinian state within three years. Bureau Report