Ze'ev Jabotinsky, grandson of the Revisionist leader, Tuesday strongly praised President Shimon Peres for what he called an historic and unprecedented message of unity at the graveside of the late rival of Peres' mentor David Ben-Gurion.

Ben-Gurion, Peres' political patron, was a bitter foe of Jabotinsky even after the rightist leader's death in 1940. As prime minister, Ben-Gurion vetoed efforts to bring Jabotinsky's bones to Israel. The remains were were brought to Mount Herzl in Jerusalem in 1964, when Levi Eshkol was prime minister.

Peres, who began his term as Israel's ninth president Monday, said he found similarity between Jabotinsky and founding prime minister Ben-Gurion's positions on the issue of Greater Israel.

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"Jabotinsky advocated holding both banks of the Jordan. Ben-Gurion supported dividing Israel. They both agreed on the need to ensure a Jewish majority - an issue that is topical to this day," Peres said at the annual memorial service for Jabotinsky, whose protege Menachem Begin founded the Herut party, the forerunner of the Likud.

"I had a scale of expectations ranging from the worst to the best, and this exceeded the best. This was an historic address from a former leader of the Labor movement," Jabotinsky's namesake grandson told Israel Radio Tuesday. Peres, now of the Kadima party, was a leader of Labor for decades.

"There was a desire here to say let us join hands for the future - I have never heard a speech like this from any present or past leader of the Labor movement, and think that this a very fine beginning, an effort to unite the people."

Peres said that Jabotinsky's revisionist vision, of an Israel built on both banks of the Jordan River, would have been possible had it not been for the death of six million Jews in the Holocaust.

Peres entered the presidential residence Monday and held individual meetings with the presidential staff. Afterward he met guests from abroad who came for his inaugural ceremony.

Israel's United Nations ambassador, Dan Gillerman, told Peres that his election made all Israelis living overseas proud.

Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice-chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, and Pierre Besnainou, one of the leaders of the French Jewish community, asked Peres to serve as leader for Diaspora Jews as well.

Peres said he intended to initiate projects regarding the Jewish people during his term.

Peres will hold a series of work meetings Tuesday and meet with Iceland's foreign minister.