US supports Britain's initiative to hold Middle East meeting

The United States on Wednesday offered its support to British Prime Minister Tony Blair's plan for a conference next year on Palestinian development toward statehood.

"We support the British initiative to hold the meeting in London to focus on the issue of Palestinian reform," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher told a news briefing.

"This is a welcome and a timely initiative. We look forward to working with the British government on it. We look forward to working with them and with the Palestinians and others on the process of reform that it's designed to address," Boucher said.

Blair, who is visiting the Middle East, said in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Wednesday that a conference he plans on Palestinian reform in London will offer a way back to an internationally backed "road map" for a Palestinian state.

The road map plan for peace in the Middle East, launched last year by the United States, envisions an end to the Palestinian violence and a freeze on Israeli settlement activity on occupied land as well as an independent Palestinian state.

But the road map has been stymied by violence and the failure of both Israelis and Palestinians to meet their obligations.

Blair plans to hold the conference in London in February following a Jan. 9 Palestinian presidential election, which moderate Mahmoud Abbas is widely expected to win.

Source: Xinhua