Bethlehem - Ma'an - A 2.5 million Euro funding deal was signed Thursday in Ramallah between Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and the Finnish government represented by Deputy Representative to the Palestinian Authority Outi Saarikoski.

The money will go toward paying the salaries of Palestinian Authority employees and pensioners via the EU's PEGASE mechanism, the PA news agency WAFA said.

The donation came as part of the 20 million US dollar pledge the Finnish government put forward in the Paris Donor Conference in 2007.