Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (R) meets with Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal (L) in Tehran, Iran April 16, 2006. Iran is donating US$50 million in aid to the Hamas-led Palestinian government after the US and the European Union froze financing. -Xinhua/AFP

Iran and Qatar have offered US$50 million apiece in aid to the Hamas-led Palestinian Government after the United States and the European Union froze financing.

Iran's foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, announced the Iranian donation on Sunday, the last day of a pro-Palestinian conference.

"We warn that if the aid is cut and if this continues in the near future," the Palestinians "will witness a humanitarian disaster and the occupiers and their supporters will be responsible," Mr. Mottaki said, referring to Israel, according to the ISNA news agency.

Qatar announced today through its state news agency that it would also extend US$50 million to the Palestinian Authority. An official with the Foreign Ministry said the money represented the full amount of a pledge Qatar made last month at an Arab League summit.

The European Union suspended its US$600 million direct aid package to the Palestinian Government, and the United States suspended most of a US$400 million donation after Hamas's unexpected electoral victory in January. The measures were aimed at increasing pressure on the group to renounce violence and to recognize Israel.

The three-day conference brought together some 600 Palestinian militant leaders and their supporters from Muslim countries.

The exiled Hamas political leader, Khaled Meshal, said Saturday at the conference that his government would never recognize Israel.

He also said the government needed US$170 million a month, of which US$115 million would go toward paying salaries. But, Mr. Meshal said, the government has inherited not only an empty treasury, but also US$1.7 billion in debts.

During his speech on Sunday, Mr. Mottaki dismissed a demand for Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment program. Both the United Nations nuclear agency and the Security Council have demanded that Iran freeze its program.

His comments appeared to be a response to Mohamed ElBaradei, the director general of the United Nations nuclear agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency, who visited Iran on Thursday to try to persuade the Iranian authorities to freeze the nuclear program.

"We do not want anything more than our rights stated in the Nonproliferation Treaty, and we cannot accept anything beyond the regulations of the treaty and nuclear agency," Mr. Mottaki said.

Iran announced last week that it had enriched uranium to 3.5 percent, a level of purity that, if enough could be produced, might fuel a nuclear reactor. If enriched to higher levels, it could be used for making nuclear bombs.

Melissa Fleming, a spokeswoman for the nuclear agency who was in Tehran last week, said a team of technical inspectors was expected to visit Iran's nuclear facilities this week.