(Adds details, background) DOHA, Dec 3 (Reuters) - U.S.-ally Qatar will pay the salaries of 40,000 Palestinian education workers for several months, the Palestinian prime minister said on Sunday, helping to ease an economic crisis caused by a Western aid boycott. "Qatar will pay the salaries of all the education employees, who are 40,000. This amount will total $22.5 million per month for the coming several months starting now," Ismail Haniyeh said, adding that Qatar was also studying giving an additional $7 million per month to the Palestinian health sector. Haniyeh told reporters in Doha a Qatari delegation would travel to the Palestinian territories in 10 days to discuss setting up an Islamic bank with a $50 million capital that would be increased to $100 million to finance development there. The Gulf Arab state would also build a sports city in the Palestinian territories, Haniyeh said, but gave no more details. Qatari officials were not immediately available for comment. The Hamas-led Palestinian government has been brought to the brink of financial collapse due to a Western aid boycott over its refusal to recognise Israel, renounce violence and embrace interim Israeli-Palestinian peace deals. The Arab League said in July it had wired $50 million in donations from Arab states including Qatar to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to ease the crisis by providing humanitarian grants to government workers who have gone unpaid for months. Qatar, a political maverick in the largely conservative Gulf region, has hosted Hamas leaders in the past. It was one of the countries a Hamas delegation visited earlier this year during a tour aimed at securing funds for the Palestinian Authority.
