Palestinian economy minister on Monday said there will be no new economic meetings with Israel until the latter responds to a series of their demands.

The Economy Minister of Palestinian National Authority (PNA) Bassem Khoury held talks with Israeli Vice Prime Minister Silvan Shalom Wednesday on economic issues and presented a list of demands to ease the economic situation in the West Bank.

According to Bassem Khoury, three similar meetings should be held by the end of 2009, "but the PNA will not convene the Joint Economic Committee (JEC) unless Israel responds to our demands."

During Wednesday's meeting, which the PNA said had no relation to politics, was the highest level of bilateral meeting since the current Israeli government took office in late March.

The demands were easing the Israeli security measures and restrictions on commercial crossing points, allowing dairy products export from the West Bank through Israel, issuing movement permissions for businessmen, increasing the number of Palestinians to be admitted in Israeli hospitals and so on.

Khoury and Shalom have also talked about the Israeli obstacles that prevent Arab and Palestinian investors from launching a second mobile operator in the Palestinian territories.

The 1994 Paris Protocol, which regulates economic relations between Israel and the Palestinians, calls for convening frequent meetings of the JEC over the year.

Earlier, a spokesman for President Mahmoud Abbas has said that Shalom-Khoury meetings did not mean that the PNA had resumed political talks with Israel.

Abbas refuses to meet Netanyahu or to resume the peace negotiations with Israel unless the Jewish state stops settlement construction in the West Bank and endorses the two-state solution.

(Xinhua News Agency September 8, 2009)