AMMAN, Jordan - The European Union (news - web sites) is donating 15 million euros (US$15 million) worth of food and cash aid to 337,500 Palestinian refugees in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and the West Bank, the Amman office of the European Commission (news - web sites) said in a statement Wednesday.

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It said at least 25 percent of the donation will go for Palestinian refugees in Jordan, which hosts the largest number of Palestinians displaced in two wars with Israel since 1948.

The United Nations (news - web sites) Relief and Works Agency — established in 1949 to aid displaced Palestinians — will distribute both the food aid and cash subsidy.

The move is designed to create "stable social living conditions for Palestinian refugees" by ensuring minimum nutritional needs are met for the most vulnerable, the statement said.

It said the aid provides 4,000 metric tons (4,400 short tons) of food and a cash subsidy worth US$40 per person per year targeting special hardship cases, pregnant or nursing women, students or tuberculosis outpatients. The food was scheduled to arrive at UNRWA offices in the region in the last quarter of 2003, the statement said.

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