The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) plans to press Israel to release frequencies for an Arab mobile services provider which demands its license fees back from the pressed-for-cash PNA, the Palestinian economic minister said on Saturday.

In 2006, the PNA licensed the Wataniya Palestine to operate in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip after the company paid nearly US$354 million in investment. But this year, the company has demanded the money due to the Israeli delay in releasing radio frequencies for the operator.

To settle the issue, Palestinian officials held contacts with Israel to meet under the Joint Economic Committee (JEC) "to try toreach an agreement of releasing the frequencies and allowing the company to start operations," said Bassem Khoury, the Palestinian minister.

Khoury hopes that the JEC, which has not met for years, will be able to meet again around the end of July. The JEC was formed in 1994 to resolve economical problems between the Israeli and the Palestinian sides.

Israel, which controls the airspace of the Palestinian territories, cites security concerns to justify withholding the frequencies. But Khoury said the Jewish state "puts the obstacles to prevent harming the interests of Israeli communication providers."

"The Israeli cell phone sector fears that new investments in the Palestinian market will compete with them," Khoury added.

Earlier, Palestinian officials had warned that the possible collapse of the mobile bargain will reduce chances of foreign investment in the occupied territories and will prevent the Palestinians from 3,000 job opportunities.

Wataniya Palestine is owned by Kuwait's National Mobile Telecommunications Co (Wataniya), a unit of Qatar Telecommunications Co (Qtel), as well as a holding company for Palestinian public assets.

(Xinhua News Agency July 5, 2009)