Blair: London meet offers return to road map

British Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Wednesday that a London conference he plans on Palestinian reform will offer a way back to an internationally-backed "road map" for a Palestinian state, after years of "paralysis" in Middle East diplomacy.

Earlier in the day, Blair, declaring that a halt to Palestinian terrorism was an essential pre-condition for a return to the road map peace plan, held out hopes for further Israeli concessions beyond those in the disengagement proposal.

"What is important is that we are able to make progress after months and years where there has been none," Blair said after talks with Palestinian leaders in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Blair is on a mission to the Middle East to try to help revive peace moves after Yasser Arafat's death in November.

He plans to hold a conference in London next year following a January 9 Palestinian presidential election, which moderate Mahmoud Abbas is widely expected to win.

"We can all say we can agree on the two-state solution, but we've had frankly paralysis for months and years on this process," Blair told a joint news conference after talks with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.

Abbas said the conference would be a first step to achieving a peace process.

Blair held talks with counterpart Ariel Sharon and other Israeli leaders Wednesday morning, then traveled in a motor convoy to Arafat's Muqata compound in Ramallah to meet Abbas.

'Not the last word'Speaking at a joint news conference following his conversation with Sharon, Blair turned aside suggestions that the proposed withdrawal from Gaza Strip settlements and four in the West Bank was meant to forestall all future Israeli concessions.

Blair, referring to Sharon, said "I certainly have understood him to be saying very, very clearly - provided that the terrorism stops ... disengagement is not the last word."

Sharon's response was more guarded, but he said that he believed that once a new Palestinian leadership made good on promises to curb terrorism, "that will enable us to turn to the road map, and implement everything which is in the road map."

Blair applauded Israel's disengagement plan, calling it an excellent opportunity to move back to the internationally brokered road map to Middle East peace.

The talks between the two leaders were the first of the British leader's 24-hour visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories. He is also set to meet Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia and PLO Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Qureia adviser Hassan Abu Libdeh said after the Blair-Sharon talks that the Palestinians would prefer Blair's planned London conference on the Middle East to focus more on renewing peace talks than on economic reforms in the Palestinian Authority, Israel Radio reported.

Blair said the conference, scheduled for February 2005, was aimed at helping the disengagement "pave the way" back to the road map, which has been accepted by both Israel and the Palestinians.

Israel said earlier in the week that it would not attend the conference in London, although it did support such a meeting. Sharon told reporters Wednesday that Israel "ascribes great importance to the meeting."

"It was never anticipated that Israel would attend next year's Middle East meeting in London," said Blair on Wednesday.

But, the British prime minister said, the Palestinians must end the violence, warning that, "Terrorism is not the way to a negotiated settlement, it is the obtacle to a negotiated settlement."

	Ariel Sharon greeting Tony Blair ahead of their talks in Jerusalem on Wednesday. (AP)