1 Visiting U.S. Commerce Secretary said Monday that continued Mideast violence was a major obstacle to private investment in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
2 'Investors want a certain comfort level,' Brown told reporters. 'They want to know that their investments are safe.and that kind of assurance must come from people in the region.'
3 U.S. officials traveling with Brown said that since autonomy began last May, only one private U.S.-Palestinian venture was formed, a factory making building materials in the Gaza Strip.
4 The U.S. government offers private investors loan guarantees and political risk insurance as incentives, the officials said.
5 Brown also went to the West Bank city of Ramallah and met with Palestinian Economic Minister Ahmed Qurei who said that 'the American response was very serious in offering assistance' to the self-rule.
6 Qurei told reporters that the United States also promised to help reel in promised funding from donor countries.
7 'They are offering help but the question is, is it enough?' Qurei added.
8 Brown, accompanied by American business executives, arrived in Israel Sunday on the first leg of a week-long Middle East tour promoting U.S. trade and investment in the region. On his agenda are meetings with Israeli and Palestinian business and political leaders.
9 Brown also tempered his initial criticism of Israel's closure of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The closure, imposed after a Jan. 22 suicide bombing, bars tens of thousands of Palestinian laborers from reaching jobs in Israel.
10 Brown said Sunday that the restrictions were 'devastating economically' for the Palestinians.
11 Asked to comment further on the issue Monday, he said: 'I certainly understand the security needs of the closure.'
12 'The unfortunate thing is that many people are punished for terrorist acts that are just absolutely unacceptable and must be dealt with,' Brown said.
13 Brown will meet Tuesday with PLO chairman Yasser Arafat in Gaza to discuss investment projects in the West Bank and Gaza.
14 Later this week, Brown will attend a regional trade summit with Jordanian, Israeli, Egyptian and Palestinian officials in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Taba.
15 Israel television said he told Israeli officials Monday that three joint U.S.-Israeli projects had been approved at the cost of dlrs 24 million.

The U . S . government offers private investors loan guarantees and political risk insurance as incentives , the officials said .
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