Four Palestinian officials, including two currently in custody, have been charged over accusations that they siphoned off $1.7 million of public funds, a senior official said yesterday. The two under arrest are suspected of diverting the funds for their personal ends and their case files have already been forwarded to the state prosecutor, the head of the Palestinian intelligence service Tawfiq Al-Tirawi told AFP. Two other officials suspected of involvement in the scandal have fled to neighboring Jordan but the Palestinian Authority has submitted a request to the government in Amman for their extradition, Tirawi added. Tirawi said several other officials were likely to be interrogated shortly on the orders of Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas who has pledged to curb the rampant corruption with the Palestinian Authority. While Tirawi did not reveal the identities of the four who have been charged, other officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said that three were employees of the Finance Ministry while a fourth worked in the presidential office. Reformist Finance Minister Salam Fayad told AFP last month he had managed to increase revenues by $30 million a month by cracking down on corruption which flourished during the era of Yasser Arafat, the longtime Palestinian leader who died in November.