Last update - 00:00 21/09/2007
Bush to hold first direct talks with Tony Blair as Middle East envoy
By Reuters
U.S. President George W. Bush will meet Tony Blair in New York on Monday, for their first direct talks since the former British prime minister became international Middle East envoy, the White House said.
Bush's meeting with Blair will follow a separate session with U.S.-backed Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayad, also in New York, a day before Bush and other world leaders address the United Nations General Assembly.
The round of talks could help lay the groundwork for a U.S.-sponsored Middle East peace conference scheduled for November.
Bush played an instrumental role in last June's appointment of Blair, his close ally in the 2003 Iraq invasion, as special envoy for the Quartet of Middle East mediators, the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice held talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders during a 36-hour visit to the region this week but there was little sign she had managed to bridge their differences ahead of the U.S.-led conference.
Michael Kozak, a senior official at the White House National Security Council, told reporters Bush's talks with Blair and Palestinian leaders are seen as an opportunity to advance a vision of Israel and an eventual Palestinian state living side by side in peace.
Bush has promoted a two-state solution but has been accused by critics of doing little to revive the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, stalled by violence and mutual mistrust for most of his administration.