PARIS (Reuters) - An international donors' conference pledged $7.4 billion in aid to the Palestinians over the next three years, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said on Monday.

"Our goal had been for $5.6 billion. Now we have $7.4 billion," Kouchner told a news conference following the one-day conference which aimed to boost the Palestinian economy and underpin renewed Middle East peace talks.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy had urged the 68 visiting states to be generous at the conference, the financial sequel to last month's Annapolis meeting that launched the first Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in seven years.

"This conference is literally the government's last hope to avoid bankruptcy," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said.

Many analysts doubt the peace effort will go far because of divisions among the Palestinians and Olmert's weak position with a fragile governing coalition, part of which opposes the compromises necessary for a peace deal.