UN report says PA ready to govern a state

The Palestinian Authority is now largely ready to govern a state, the office of the United Nations special coordinator for the Middle East peace process declared in a report on Tuesday.

"In six areas where the UN is most engaged, governmental functions are now sufficient for a functioning government of a state," said the report, which will be submitted to Palestinian donor nations meeting in Brussels on Wednesday.

But the report warned that it would be difficult for the Palestinian Authority to make any additional progress while the Israeli occupation continued and peace talks remained stalled.

"The key constraints to the existence and successful functioning of the institutions of a potential state of Palestine arise primarily from the persistence of the occupation and the unresolved issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," the report said.

"The institutional achievements of the Palestinian state-building agenda are approaching their limits within the political and physical space currently available."