ERUSALEM (Reuters) - Tony Blair began his first visit to the Middle East as international envoy on Monday, meeting Israeli leaders who promised to try to revive the long-stalled peace process with the Palestinians.
"It is time to renew the process and I'm sure that the (Israeli) prime minister will do that in the nearest future," Haim Ramon, a senior Israeli cabinet minister and vice premier, told the newly retired British prime minister in Jerusalem.
Blair hopes to help bring an end to 60 years of peacemaking failure since Britain handed Palestine to Jews and Arabs who are still fighting over it.
"Mission Impossible", as sceptics have dubbed Blair's task for the Quartet powers, began quietly in what his spokesman called "listening mode".
"This is a critical point in time to create a turning point," Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told Blair.
She said the prospects for a Palestinian state depended on a serious crackdown on militants and on the Palestinian government controlling all its territory and recognising Israel's right to exist.
Blair, who earlier in the day met Jordan's foreign minister, said nothing in public.
On Tuesday, Blair will meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad in Ramallah before talks in Jerusalem with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
"This is a preliminary visit to hear the views of key Israelis and Palestinians about the issues that have to be addressed in order to fulfil the demanding mandate Mr. Blair has taken on," the spokesman for the new envoy said.
"Mr. Blair will also have the chance to hear from a number of important Arab leaders their views on the situation and consider with them how best we can jointly make progress."
Ahead of Tuesday's meeting, Israeli officials said Olmert was prepared to discuss "in general terms" core issues, including borders, with Abbas after insisting for months that they not be included.
Olmert still believes that talk of relaunching final status negotiations remained premature for now despite mounting U.S. pressure, the officials said.
BLAIR'S ROLE
The Quartet -- the United States, European Union, United Nations and Russia -- has asked Blair to present by September an initial plan for building ruling institutions needed to establish a viable Palestinian state alongside Israel.
But that limited mandate could expand later into a more direct peacemaking role between the parties, diplomats say.
That might unsettle Israel. Olmert's spokeswoman, Miri Eisin, made clear Israel saw Blair's role as supporting Palestinian institutions: "Seeing their capacity to rule grow will definitely help the bilateral track," she told reporters.
Blair faces serious obstacles to success in a role that has doomed his predecessors' efforts. A Palestinian state seems more remote than ever, with their territories divided between Hamas Islamists in the coastal Gaza Strip and Abbas's secular Fatah faction in the Israeli-occupied West Bank inland.
Israel's government may be too weak to deliver concessions such as the withdrawal of Jewish settlements. Many Arabs resent Blair's role in invading Iraq, and the Quartet remains divided over whether he should have a broader negotiating mandate.
In his favour may be eagerness among leaders on both sides to raise their stock at home by showing progress towards peace.
A close relationship with U.S. President George W. Bush may give added clout to Blair, a relatively youthful 54-year-old successful in peacemaking in his Northern Irish backyard.
Abbas wants Blair to pressure Israel to ease its military grip on the West Bank and take steps to accelerate negotiations.
For Hamas in Gaza, spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said Blair must deal with the Islamist movement and avoid "double standards".
(Additional reporting by Suleiman al-Khalidi in Amman, Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza and Adam Entous in Jerusalem)
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