US president George Bush has spoken to outgoing British prime minister Tony Blair about taking up the post of Quartet envoy to the Middle East peace process after he leaves office next week, write Michael Jansenand Frank Millarin London
A White House official confirmed that Mr Bush and secretary of state Condoleezza Rice discussed the position directly with Mr Blair.
It is not known if the other three members of the Quartet, the EU, UN and Russia, have been consulted. Their reservations would have to be addressed if Mr Blair is considering the post. The main aim of the Quartet is to bring peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
Al-Jazeera reported yesterday that there have been intensive negotiations between the US and Britain over the job, which remained empty after James Wolfensohn, former head of the World Bank, retired in April 2006. US assistant secretary of state for near eastern affairs and regional trouble-shooter David Welch was seen leaving 10 Downing Street yesterday, but would not comment on the subject of his talks there.
Downing Street conspicuously failed to quash speculation about Mr Blair's possible appointment. The prime minister's official spokesman declined to offer any guidance to journalists, other than that they "shouldn't get ahead of themselves" in light of speculation. Asked about the reports during the Westminster lobby briefing, the spokesman also side-stepped the issue - saying he was the prime minister's spokesman "and not the spokesman for the soon-to-be former prime minister".
However, Downing Street's reluctance to be drawn on the subject was in stark contrast to its attitude last week to suggestions that Mr Blair might become the new European president. Then the response was simply that Mr Blair would not be returning "to front-line politics".
Over the past five years Mr Blair has urged Mr Bush to launch a high-profile effort to broker a settlement between Palestinians and Israelis, but Mr Bush has refused to engage and the peace process, given momentum by Bill Clinton, collapsed. Speculation that Mr Blair may wish to take up Mr Clinton's mantle is, therefore, reasonably well founded.
Mr Blair told Al-Jazeera's David Frost last November: "I think apart from Iraq and Afghanistan, where it is important to support the process of democracy, the most important thing for me is progress in Israel and Palestine. Nothing would have a greater symbolic importance than that. It would send a signal to the whole world that this was not a battle between westerners or Christians and Muslims."