As British Prime Minister Tony Blair is currently on a tour in the Middle East to probe ways to revive the stalled peace process, expectations rose as to whether his trip portends a new policy vision in dealing with the Palestinian issue and the Palestinian-Israeli peace process.

Blair, who arrived here Saturday, urged the international community to support Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' call for early elections in order to find a solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict as the peace process is in "a very, very critical time."

At a press conference in the British embassy here, Blair said Abbas's speech was very important at this critical time, which showed that Abbas "is seeking a way out of the deadlock in the peace process" and wished to improve living standards of the Palestinian people who have suffered for so long.

During talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Blair stressed that it was high time to find ways to revive the deadlocked Middle East peace process.

Earlier, Blair said in Ankara that the next few days and weeks would be critical to determine whether Israel and the Palestinians can break the cycle of violence.

"If we don't get a new sense of urgency and momentum to the situation, it will continue to go backwards," he noted.

Egyptian presidential spokesman Suliman Awwad said Mubarak welcomed Blair's remarks on the Palestinian issue since it was the core of the Middle East conflict, adding that achieving headway in the peace process will help ease the suffering of the Palestinian people.

As to the U.S. and British vision of the Middle East peace process, Awwad said the new trend and signals coming from major capitals, such as Washington and London, indicated the importance of Mubarak's call for a swift solution to the Middle East crises. Despite worries that Blair's tour might lead to nothing regarding the Palestinian-Israeli peace process, some analysts insist that Blair's stop in Cairo, before Israel, Palestine and the United Arab Emirates, is significant because the British government has become realistic compared with the United States, in coping with the Arab-Israeli conflict, with the Palestinian issue in particular.

"Blair's Mideast tour is of great importance in a time when London recognized that getting along with the U.S. Administration on dealing with the issues of the region was not wise. The economic, political and security measures of the Western States will not be stable in the region, unless a comprehensive and fair peace process between Arabs and Israelis can be achieved," Abdula Shliver, professor of political science at the American University in Cairo told Xinhua.

He noted that Blair's remarks in Turkey on Friday gave a remarkable sense that there is a major change in the British policy on the region and implied he is going to achieve new advances in solving the Palestinian conflict.

In a statement published by the Egyptian newspaper Akhbar el-Yom on Saturday, former British Ambassador to Egypt Graham Hugh Boyce hailed Blair's visit to Egypt as a "turning point" for the Middle East region.

The visit came within the context of a trilateral British-Egyptian-U.S. move to broaden Egypt's role in the region in line with a recent agreement between Blair and U.S. President George W.Bush, Boyce said.

In his 10th year in office, Blair has recently stepped up efforts to help revive the stalled Middle East peace process before his resignation next year as progress in the Israel-Palestine conflict is considered as crucial in a bid to help end bloodshed in Iraq and stop the post-invasion conflict, which has damaged Britain's reputation in the region and Blair's popularity at home, analysts said.

Source: Xinhua