Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert hosts British Premier Tony Blair for talks on Mideast peace tomorrow, with both leaders looking for foreign policy achievements to offset public criticism and political rebellion at home.
Mr Blair, who surrendered to a fierce revolt in his Labour Party yesterday and pledged to step down within a year, is also expected to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank town of Ramallah on Sunday, Palestinian officials said.
Israeli government spokeswoman Miri Eisin said today that although the agenda for Mr Blair's meeting with Mr Olmert had yet to be set, the two men were likely to discuss options for resuming peace efforts with the Palestinians.
Contacts have been frozen since the violent Islamic Hamas group swept Palestinian parliamentary elections in January and took the reins of government.
Israel says there can be no negotiation with Hamas until it renounces violence, recognises Israel and accepts existing peace agreements between the two sides. It also has frozen formal talks with the moderate Abbas until an Israeli soldier snatched by Palestinian militants from Gaza in June is released.
"I am sure they are going to be talking about how we can proceed with Hamas still in power," Eisin said, adding that she expected Iran's nuclear programme would also be a topic.
Diplomats said the future of the fragile cease-fire between Israel and the Hezbollah militia in southern Lebanon would be a major item for discussion. In London, Blair's spokesman said the prime minister will focus both on the aftermath of the Lebanon fighting and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He does not plan to deliver any detailed proposals.
"This is about trying to restart the process of thinking about the process ... about preliminary discussions, about assessing where we are," he said. Mr Blair's spokesman in London said the trip is meant to help ease bitterness after the fighting in Lebanon and isn't meant to distract attention from his problems back home.
Mr Blair yesterday acknowledged the divisions wracking his Labour Party, but appeared to claim the lifting of Israel's blockade of Lebanon as an achievement for his government and international diplomacy. "We've got the blockade on the Lebanon lifted today," he said. "You know there are important things going on in the world." Already weakened by the war in Iraq and his party's slide in opinion polls, Blair's handling of the fighting in Lebanon contributed to his downfall.
In particular, Mr Blair's refusal to break ranks with US President George Bush and call for a swift end to the fighting was the final provocation for many once-loyal supporters.
His policy in Lebanon also has had repercussions in the Palestinian areas, where a group of prominent intellectuals published a statement yesterday saying Mr Blair would not be welcome in the West Bank.