Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei rejected on Thursday British Prime Minister Tony Blair's remarks that a peace conference due in London would be devoted to Palestinian reform.

"The remarks are rejected and a conference to be devoted only to Palestinian reform is also rejected. What is needed is an international peace conference," Qurei told reporters.

During a cabinet meeting on Thursday, Qurei said, "If he (Blair) wants to hold a conference to prepare the Palestinians for the peace process, such an idea is totally rejected and unacceptable."

"We are very well prepared and qualified and have abilities and experiences to go for a peace process and negotiations. We went through the most difficult peace negotiations in Oslo and Wye River," he said.

However, Mahmoud Abbas, chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization Executive Committee, has said that he welcomed the holding of such a conference in a meeting with Blair on Wednesday.

This showed that there were differences between the Palestinian leadership on the matter.

"That is the Israelis who should be trained over how to be qualified for peace. We were hoping that Blair would ask the Israelis to be qualified for participating in the peace process," said Qurei.

Source: Xinhua