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| 23/06/2008 Arab and European leaders met in Vienna Monday to raise funds for a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon which was destroyed last year during clashes between militants and the Lebanese army.
The donors' conference organized by the Lebanese government, the World Bank and the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), is aimed at reconstructing the Nahr al-Bared camp, much of which was reduced to rubble.
Some 31,000 refugees have been relocated from the camp.
The UNRWA estimated earlier this month that 450 million dollars
were needed to rebuild Nahr al-Bared and 15 nearby villages.
Some 1,900 families have already returned to the camp, while
2,400 others still live in Baddaoui, Tripoli and the region,
according to the agency.
Participants at the one-day conference included Lebanese Prime
Minister Designate Fouad Saniora, Arab League chief Amr Mussa, EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner and Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik.
Invitations were sent to 80 governments and organizations,
Saniora's press office said.
He said in an interview with the Austrian daily Der Standard published Monday that his country "always carried a disproportional share of the burden," referring to the 400,000
Palestinians who live in some 13 refugee camps around Lebanon.
"This conference is an opportunity to put this matter in the right context, to understand the extent of the problem," he added.
"Israel still does not accept the Palestinians' rights, including their right to return. Just as it still does not accept the Arab peace initiative," he noted. | 
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