Britain has secured US agreement to hold an international peace conference on the Middle East in London early next year, according to a report today.
The Daily Telegraph, quoting diplomatic sources, said British Prime Minister Tony Blair would discuss details with Israeli and Palestinian leaders during a visit to the Middle East this month.
The conference, planned for late January or early February, is likely to be attended by foreign ministers, but it was not yet clear that Israel would send a delegation at that level, said the paper.
The newspaper said the conference would probably be announced only after a January 9th Palestinian ballot to choose a successor to Yasser Arafat and would depend on the election of moderate former Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas.
It quoted an unidentified Israeli source as saying "there will be no conference" if Palestinians elected Marwan Barghouthi, who is serving five life sentences in an Israeli jail for ordering militant attacks that killed Israelis.
The report said Washington was unlikely to deal with Barghouthi either.
The newspaper quoted the diplomatic sources as saying preparations for the conference now dominated US-British foreign policy talks and were at the heart of attempts to heal rifts between Washington and some European nations over Iraq.
"There may be a London conference," British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told the Independentnewspaper.
Referring to previous Middle East conferences, he said: "This would be a more discreet arrangement to do with the day after in Gaza."
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has announced a US-backed plan to "disengage" from conflict with Palestinians by removing all 21 settlements in Gaza and four of 120 in the West Bank in 2005.
Mr Blair discussed the question of a conference with US President George W. Bush in Washington last month. Both leaders said Mr Arafat's death last month offered an opportunity to advance the long-stalled Middle East peace process.
Mr Bush has vowed to use the next four years of his second term to help establish a Palestinian state as part of a peace deal.