Ammon News - The European Union will increase its financial support for the Palestinian Authority with a three-year package worth around 1.6 billion euros ($1.8 billion), the European Commissioner responsible for the Middle East told Reuters in an interview.

Dubravka Suica, the European Commissioner for the Mediterranean, said the financial support would go hand in hand with reforms of the Palestinian Authority.

The commissioner's remarks came ahead of a first "high-level political dialogue" between European Union foreign ministers and senior Palestinian officials including Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa in Luxembourg on Monday.

Suica said 620 million euros would go to financial support and reform of the PA, 576 million euros to "resilience and recovery" of the West Bank and Gaza and 400 million euros would come in loans from the European Investment Bank, subject to the approval of its governing body.

She said average EU support for the PA had amounted to about 400 million euros over the past 12 years.