ISRAEL complained yesterday that British-led reconstruction efforts in Gaza were proving too slow and bureaucratic to deliver tangible results needed for Palestinians on the ground.

Shimon Peres, the Israeli Deputy Prime Minister, who will meet Tony Blair at the Labour Party Conference in Brighton today, said that there was little to show for the billions pledged by G8 countries at the Gleneagles summit earlier this year.

“I am not satisfied with the pace. It comes slowly. All problems are immediate, all solutions are slow. It is in this gap that you create disbelief and doubt,” said Mr Peres, who is responsible for organising the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and its aftermath. “When you are hungry for a piece of bread, you are hungry every morning.”

Britain, which has the presidency of the G8 and the European Union, has taken a leading role in helping to put together a Gaza development plan. Mr Blair hosted an international conference in London earlier this year to win international support and then won a pledge from the world’s leading industrialised nations for £6 billion over three years in an effort to rebuild the densely populated and neglected area. The policy will also be at the heart of a visit to the Middle East by Gordon Brown, the Chancellor, next month.

British officials are convinced that economic development is crucial in encouraging Palestinian moderates who face a stiff challenge from militant Islamic groups in parliamentary elections scheduled for early next year.

But Mr Peres told The Times that time was being lost: “The G8 is supposed to provide money to the Palestinians . . . There has not been enough co-ordination.” The veteran Labour Party leader, 82, who is Ariel Sharon’s junior partner in the Israeli coalition Government, said that ultimately private enterprise rather than government aid programmes would probably deliver better results.

“I am for the privatisation of peace,” he told The Times. “Governments are heavy machines. They march very slowly. They follow norms, commitments, rules and diplomacy. It is not the car you want for a race.”

The risks of moving slowly were highlighted at the weekend when Hamas fired rockets into Israel and the Israeli military retaliated with airstrikes against suspected militant targets.

Mr Peres said that he was still committed to opening up Gaza to the outside world and facilitating the movement of people and goods but that the current violence was making the process more difficult.

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