Summit backs Blair's peace call

The international community today lent its backing to a new drive by Tony Blair to bring peace to the Middle East.

At a special summit in London, representatives from 23 states agreed a three-point agenda to help the Palestinian Authority.

Mr Blair said the meeting - the largest gathering on the Middle East in recent years - came at a "fragile" time for the peace process. As a result, it was essential that the international community support new Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas's programme of reform, he said.

"The significance of this issue and the Middle East peace process

. . . is not confined to Israel, Palestine or even to the Middle East. It's something that concerns all the countries represented here today.

"There's probably no more pressing political challenge than to move this process forward because it has a relevance on the streets of Britain, on the streets of European countries as well as in the Middle East itself," he said. US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice and UN secretary general Kofi Annan were among the representatives from 23 states and six global organisations attending the meeting.

Surrounded by tight security, the one-day conference at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre in Westminster comes days after a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv killed four people.

Despite the sombre backdrop, Mr Blair said he wanted to build on last month's historic breakthrough when Mr Abbas and Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon called for an end to the violence.

Mr Blair praised Mr Abbas for having produced "clear plans" for the Palestinian state.

"This is a moment of opportunity. It's vital that we seize it. I am confident that we can," he told the conference.

"But the one thing we have learned over the past few years is that the peace process never happens just because of expressions of goodwill. There has to be a hard slog in the detail, in the day-to-day management, to get it done and I hope today's conference can provide some specifics to that goodwill and solidarity."

Today's meeting saw:

Mr Abbas set out his plans for reforming the economy, government infrastructure and security of the Palestinian Authority.

Pledges by the international community to give the Palestinians economic and diplomatic support.

The drawing up of agreements to ensure both sides stick to the " workplan".

The agenda is designed to help the Palestinian leader overcome the final hurdles preventing the resumption of formal talks between the two sides as set out in the "road map" for peace drawn up by the US, Russia, the European Union and the UN - all of whom attended today's meeting along with representatives from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

Mr Abbas said the conference laid the foundations for future talks on the peace process.

"For us as Palestinians we are going forward to put our house in order and to address our commitments as in the peace process, as in the road map. We only have one demand and that is reciprocity according to the road map," he said.

Critics claimed the conference was serious weakened by the absence of the Israelis. However, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the presence of Mr Annan, Ms Rice and the foreign

ministers from France, Russia and Germany demonstrated the "sense of opportunity and momentum created by recent progress".

Mr Straw added: "The fact of the event of some conferences can often make a very big difference to the politics of the issue concerned."

He said the summit agenda would allow the Palestinians to "make rapid progress" towards meeting their obligations and give the Israelis confidence so that they can push ahead with their withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.

Scores of radical Islamists gathered outside the centre to demonstrate against Mr Abbas. The protesters from Hizb-ut-Tahrir (Party of Freedom) - banned in many countries - chanted "Mahmoud Abbas, you will burn" and "traitors, fakes and thieves".