British Prime Minister Tony Blair and US President George W. Bush have voiced confidence over new opportunities for peace in the Middle East. Meanwhile, the European Union will meet later this month with Israel and Arab neighbors to discuss Iraq and the road map peace plan.

President Bush met with Tony Blair in Washington hours after Yasser Arafat was laid to rest in the West Bank, reported CCTV on Saturday.

Emerging from the 40-minute meeting, Blair called for widespread support for Palestinians as they choose a successor to Arafat and urged that support should continue beyond elections as Palestinians work to make their society more functional.

Bush declared there was a new opportunity to resolve the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Bush said,"I think it is fair to say that I believe we've got a great chance to establish a Palestinian state and I intend to spend the next four years to spend the capital of the United States on such a state. I believe it is in the interests of the world that a truly free state develops. I know it's in the interests of the Palestinian people."

Shortly after Arafat's burial on Friday, European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana visited his Ramalah compound and met with Mahmoud Abbas, the new head of the Palestinian Liberation Organization.

The EU diplomat said the most important thing was to make the dream of a Palestinian state come true.

Solana said,"The sentiment we have is the sentiment of solidarity with the Palestinian people. The most important thing that we can ask is that the dream become a reality and that is to have a state, and for that we have to work with the Palestinian people to make it a reality."

Later on Friday, Solana came out to lay a wreath on Arafat's grave. He said Yasser Arafat would have been proud of the outpouring of emotion on Friday.

Source: cctv.com