August 27, 2003	Wednesday	Jumadi-us-Sani 28, 1424

PARIS, Aug 26: The French government says that it’s “undertaking its own investigations” into allegations by Washington according to which a French-based pro-Palestinian NGO the “Committee for charity and support of Palestine”, is in fact being used to finance Hamas, as Washington alleges.

Once the investigations are completed, said France’s foreign policy spokesman, “we will be sure to analyze our results in close collaboration with our European partners,” suggesting that any condemnation, which seemed unlikely, would be done not by individual countries like France, but by the European Union as a whole, the EU publishing a list of its own of NGOs and other groups considered as supporting terrorism.

Asked whether France had decided to freeze the accounts of the NGO, the official spokesman noted that “we have long been vigilant with regard to the funnelling of funds collected for humanitarian reasons but destined for terrorist actions.”