Tony Blair: International strategy on Gaza hasn't worked

International Middle East peace envoy Tony Blair has called for "a new strategy in Gaza," in remarks made in Cairo on Wednesday, and admitted that the international community's approach to the Palestinian territory had not worked.

"We need a new strategy for Gaza," Blair told reporters after meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. "We should learn from what happened in the past few weeks and make sure that in the future our strategy toward Gaza is different from the one we have pursued until now, because it hasn't worked, and we need to change it."

Former British prime minister Blair, who represents the Quartet of Middle East peace negotiators - including the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations - also met with U.S. President Barack Obama's Mideast envoy, George Mitchell.

Mitchell was in Cairo for meetings with President Mubarak and Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit.

Blair and Mitchell, who worked together to help produce the 1998 Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland, are now touring the Middle East separately trying to establish a lasting cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas.