Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said this week that he supports an American plan to appoint outgoing British Prime Minister Tony Blair as the Quartet's special envoy to the Middle East.

Olmert was briefed about the plan during his visit to Washington this week.

Olmert told American reporters that he knows of the plan, "and I will certainly support it and be pleased." A Jerusalem source said that Blair would take over the position last held by James Wolfensohn.

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Blair is acceptable to both Israel and the Palestinians and has said in the past that the solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is known, but difficult to achieve.