PALESTINIAN President Mahmoud Abbas urged the foreign ministers of EU countries to officially recognise his country today.

But his appeal came as United States Vice-President Mike Pence repeated Donald Trump’s pledge to move his country’s embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Mr Abbas said official recognition of Palestine “would encourage the Palestinian people to keep hoping for peace and to wait until peace is brought about,” he told a press conference with EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini.