US is not opposed to a Palestinian state says official

A Palestinian official source who wished to remain anonymous told ArabicNews.com that the U.S. is not opposing the announcement of a Palestinian state, saying that US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has informed Yasser Arafat that the US will not let Palestine down in the case it announces its statehood.

The source said: "We will announce our state in May of the coming year" and it doesn't matter if they will recognize us or not as "what is important is that we are going to announce our state according to the UN resolutions."

He also added that Palestine has pledges from many countries that support the founding of an independent Palestine, including European, Asian and Latin American states in addition to Arab, African and Islamic countries.