Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said on Sunday that his country had frozen aid to the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), two days after the United States and the European Union (EU) took similar actions.

Stoere explained that the move was aimed to bring Israel and the Palestinians back to the negotiating table, "so that we can achieve our goal and the international community's goal -- namely two states that can live side by side in peace."

Stoere said Norway did not want to punish Palestinians for their choice of a Hamas-led government, but adding that it could not support an administration regardless of its policies.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Norwegian Foreign Ministry said though budget support to the PNA had been cut off, humanitarian aid to the Palestinians would not be affected.

Norway granted around 57 million U.S. dollars in aid to the PNA last year.

Hamas, which has been bent on the destruction of the Jewish state, won a surprisingly landslide victory in the Palestinian parliamentary election in January.

After the United States and the EU announced the suspension of aid to the PNA on Friday, Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said on Saturday that his government would not bow to foreign pressures despite funding cuts that might push the PNA to financial collapse.