Blair tells Olmert he will focus on practical steps

JERUSALEM, Sep 5 (Reuters) Middle East envoy Tony Blair told Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert yesterday he would focus on ''practical steps'' that can be taken now to try to build confidence for future peacemaking, officials said.

The Quartet of West Asia mediators gave Blair a limited mandate mainly focused on economic development and building governing institutions in the occupied West Bank.

But Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's aides hope Blair will go further and use his influence to get Olmert to enter serious negotiations for a Palestinian state ahead of a US-sponsored conference in November.

Olmert has yet to deliver on promises to Abbas to begin removing some of the hundreds of Israeli roadblocks that restrict Palestinian travel within the West Bank.

''The prime minister is willing to take practical steps, but these steps cannot be one-sided,'' Olmert spokeswoman Miri Eisin said after the meeting, which lasted more than two hours.

Eisin said Olmert and Blair also discussed the steps that Abbas should take, such as bolstering his security forces and Palestinian governing institutions following Hamas's takeover of the Gaza Strip in June.

''(Blair) is very focused on practical steps -- practical steps that are needed from Israelis and Palestinians in the near future,'' Eisin said. She declined to elaborate.

Blair did not tell Olmert what specific steps he expected Israel to take in the near term to bolster Abbas, officials said at the start of the former British prime minister's second visit to the region as the Quartet's envoy.

The Quartet is composed of the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations.

A Blair spokesman described the meeting as ''constructive'' but declined to go into detail. Blair will Salam Fayyad today, whom Abbas appointed prime minister after dismissing a Hamas-led government.

Olmert is trying to lower expectations for sweeping, rapid-fire breakthroughs on Palestinian statehood in time for a US-sponsored conference, officials said.

Diplomats said Blair intended to use his nearly 10-day visit to press for details about what both sides would be prepared to do to bolster any future negotiations.

'REALISTIC GOALS' Visiting Assistant US Secretary of State David Welch has a similar aim.

Diplomats said he will meet with Olmert's top aides on Wednesday to try to narrow differences over the scope of a proposed agreement on statehood principles that could be launched at the conference.

''We are trying to present realistic goals,'' a senior Israeli government official said ahead of the talks, which will lay the groundwork for a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice mid-September.

Olmert is seeking a broadbrush ''declaration of principles'' in time for the November conference, whereas Abbas wants a more explicit ''framework'' agreement with a timeline for implementation on the core issues of borders, Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees.

Abbas yesterday said ''vague'' agreements threatened to turn the conference into a ''huge failure''. He proposed that Syria participate despite tensions with Israel and the United States.

Mark Regev, Israel's Foreign Ministry spokesman, said it was unrealistic to expect all problems could be solved in just a few months. ''That does not mean that significant progress is unattainable,'' Regev said.

Another senior Israeli official said Olmert's message was: ''You can't rush to something substantial right away.'' REUTERS PBB KP0542