If Mr Arafat convinces the commission that the money will be well spent, the next instalment of 60m euros will be an outright grant. The Europeans are also pressing Israel to relax the siege on the West Bank and Gaza strip and to unfreeze millions of dollars in tax revenue owed to the Palestinians.Mr Patten warned: "If the economy continues to deteriorate, if more people lose their jobs and more people are plunged into poverty, if the Palestinian Authority is undermined, it is going to be more difficult to get back to any political stability, it's going to be more difficult to deal with security issues, and it's going to be more difficult to relaunch the peace process."Israel began to lift the blockade yesterday on Ramallah and four other West Bank towns, Bethlehem, Hebron, Tulkarem and Kalkiliya.. The president of Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's political party resigned yesterday after being caught with military officers in a video sting accepting a £1,500 bribe in a fake weapons deal. The Press Trust of India said the Prime Minister had met Bangaru Laxman before he quit as president of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The president of Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's political party resigned yesterday after being caught with military officers in a video sting accepting a £1,500 bribe in a fake weapons deal.
The Press Trust of India said the Prime Minister had met Bangaru Laxman before he quit as president of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The internet media company Tehelka. played four hours of video tape to more than 300 journalists to support its allegation that two army officers and senior officials of at least two political parties in India's governing coalition, accepted money to promote a 40 million rupees (£600,377) deal for hand-held thermal cameras and other defence equipment.Commissions in defence deals are outlawed in India and conviction can mean a jail term up to seven years."Our job was to blow the whistle on corruption in India's defence procurement," said Tarun J Tejpal, editor-in-chief of Tehelka. "We wanted to nail them down." Mr Laxman at first denied he had taken money from the journalists, who posed as representatives of a fictitious London-based arms manufacturer.After the release of the secretly filmed documentary, which showed him accepting 100,000 rupees (£1,500) and placing it beside him without a word, Mr Laxman said he was within his rights to accept donations on behalf of the BJP. But, on video, the reporters are heard saying the money is for a New Year's party and are not heard mentioning an arms deal.
Mr Laxman later said he believed the money was a contribution to the party fund. "I handed the money to the party treasurer," he said.At least six army officers, including a major-general, are shown accepting large sums of money in Tehelka's footage. Major-General PSK Chaudary, in charge of weapons and equipment in the Indian army, is shown pocketing a bundle of 100,000 rupees (£1,500) at his home. In another film, a retired senior army official advises a journalist to give a gold chain worth at least 10,000 rupees (£152) to a key defence ministry official to win his support.The hidden cameras also captured the Samta party chief Jaya Jaitly ordering 200,000 rupees (£3,000) to be paid to a party fund manager.
