Ramallah, Jan 10 : Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Ishtaye has urged the Norwegian side and the international community to pressure Israel to release all unlawfully deducted amounts from the tax revenues it had collected for the Palestinian Authority (PA).

He made the remarks while receiving in Ramallah the Norwegian government's special representative to the Middle East, Hilde Haraldstad, the Prime Minister's Office said on Tuesday in a statement.

Ishtaye said the deduction of funds allocated to the Gaza Strip from Palestinian tax revenues is "a political decision" aimed at perpetuating attempts to separate the West Bank from Gaza, Xinhua news agency reported.