New Palestinian PM has trust of West

Salam Fayyad, the newly appointed Palestinian prime minister, is widely considered the best hope for persuading the West to lift crippling international sanctions against the Palestinian government.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas appointed Fayyad on Friday to replace Ismail Haniyeh, who was fired after his Hamas group violently took control of the Gaza Strip.

Fayyad had already been working to restore the much-needed aid as finance minister under the now-dissolved Palestinian unity government. With Hamas out of the coalition, he may finally succeed.

Fayyad, a former official at the International Monetary Fund, has good ties with the U.S. and Israel. He won the trust of international leaders during a previous term as finance minister under Yasser Arafat _ and gained popularity with Palestinians for curbing their longtime leader's freewheeling spending and cracking down on corruption.

When Hamas agreed to share power earlier this year, Fayyad returned as finance minister, setting out to get the sanctions lifted.

Western donor nations cut off hundreds of millions of dollars of aid to the Palestinian government after Hamas swept legislative elections last year. The sanctions _ in place over Hamas' refusal to renounce violence or recognize Israel _ have left the government unable to pay full salaries to some 165,000 employees, causing widespread hardship in the Palestinian territories.

"There has to be a better tomorrow for everybody, for both of us, Israelis and Palestinians," Fayyad told The Associated Press in a recent interview. "Where we are right now, is an extremely difficult and dangerous situation.'

While the boycott remains in place, Western diplomats welcomed Fayyad, and he has made significant headway in restoring the aid. He met with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in April and helped establish a new account that accepted limited amounts of foreign aid while bypassing Hamas.

Now that Hamas is out of the government, Fayyad is in an even better position. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Friday he wants to bolster Palestinian moderates in their struggle against Hamas. Officials in Olmert's office said he was considering the release of hundreds of millions of dollars of frozen Palestinian tax revenues.

Fayyad, an economist in his 50s with a doctorate from the University of Texas in Austin, was elected to parliament last year as a member of a small independent party.