Germany pledges aid to refugees in Lebanon during Seniora visit

Sep 5, 2007, 11:00 GMT

Berlin - Germany pledged a further 2 million euros (2.7 million dollars) in aid to refugees in Lebanon during a visit by Prime Minister Fouad Seniora to Berlin Wednesday.

Economic Cooperation and Development Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul said the funds would be made available for the estimated 400,000 Palestinian refugees in Lebanon.

While on a trip to Lebanon in July, Wieczorek-Zeul pledged an earlier 2 million euros.

'Particularly with regard to infrastructure much needs to be done,' Wieczorek-Zeul said, noting that the refugees had been in their camps for decades.

The aim was to improve living conditions and to prevent terrorist groups like al-Qaeda from 'disseminating hatred,' she said, referring in particular to the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp recently retaken by Lebanese government forces.

Seniora was also to meet Chancellor Angela Merkel and Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

Merkel has made the Middle East a central focus of German foreign policy.

Germany currently heads the naval part of the United Nations UNIFIL deployment in Lebanon, deploying ships off the country's coast to halt the smuggling of arms to the militant Hezbollah movement.

Wieczorek-Zeul visited Lebanon's neighbour, Syria, for three days at the end of August. During the trip she urged Damascus to support full sovereignty for Lebanon.