Blair talks of 'terrible virus'

Tony Blair has told the Palestinians that "the terrible virus of terrorism" has to be ended if they want the international community to help resolve the Middle East conflict.

Meeting 10 Palestinian and Israeli editors and journalists in Downing Street on Tuesday, two hours before the first of two suicide bombings in Israel, he said that without security, negotiations on the outstanding issues - borders, settlements, the future of Jerusalem, refugees - would be fruitless.

He came close to accepting that the peace road map had failed. But he said that whatever happened, "We are going to have to come back to the road map or something similar."

Drawing one of many parallels with the Northern Ireland peace process, he said that in one way Israelis and Palestinians had an advantage, in that both knew what the final outcome of negotiations would be: a Palestinian state and acceptance by the Palestinians of Israel's right to exist.

He made several passionate pleas for the Israelis and Palestinians not to give up their efforts to find a solution, nor to be deflected by extremists, and he promised that he too would keep going.

But his advisers have told him to concentrate in the coming months on domestic issues, and Mr Blair said that in the end it was up to the Israelis and Palestinians to find a solution.

He was asked about the growing momentum in Israel for sending the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, into exile, but said it did not benefit either side to condemn anyone. "The issue will not be resolved round the position of Yasser Arafat," he said.

Asked what help could be given to the new Palestinian prime minister, Abu Ala, whose predecessor Abu Mazen complained of lack of support, he said that support could be demonstrated by easing Israeli checkpoints, helping revive the Palestinian economy, and halting the construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

Mr Blair said that Iraq could be crucial to a change in attitudes in the Middle East. "If Iraq becomes a stable and democratic state", he said, "it will be a big signal across the whole of the Middle East and an important one.

"The people who are holding it back are a small group of terrorists."