Blair underplays Sharon plan and stresses Roadmap

The Prime Minister has sought to pour a little oil on fierce Palestinian opposition to Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan yesterday, stressing that the Roadmap remained the sole framework for Middle East peace negotiations.

There has been outrage in Palestinian quarters over the plan – which is viewed by Palestinian leaders as a regurgitation of a position pre-Oslo. Yasser Arafat responded angrily, saying that refugees must be allowed to return and that the Palestinian people were determined to create an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital.

The disengagement plan, unveiled on Wednesday, will see the Israelis withdraw military outposts and disputed settlements from the Gaza Strip – but six settlement zones will remain in the West Bank.

The plan also suggests that there will be no right to return for refugees displaced by the conflict; and that it would be "unrealistic" for Israel's borders to follow the 1949 armistice lines – leaving land gained in the 1967 war under Israeli control.

Talking down the broad import of Prime Minister Sharon's unilateral initiative, Mr Blair has highlighted Israel's move to withdraw troops from Gaza Strip, but stressed the over-arching influence of Quartet and the importance of the 2002 brokered Roadmap.

Speaking at a press conference in New York yesterday, following on from discussions with the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, Mr Blair said he did not "personally see that [the plan was] in any way displacing the Roadmap". On the contrary, he said, the Roadmap is and remains the right way forward for the resolution of the Middle East peace process "and we certainly strongly support it".

He added: "In respect of the Roadmap I think there is a confusion here. I don't see the Roadmap as sidelined at all I'm afraid. Until we manage to get in place the basic elements of security so that we can then start, if you like, a cooperative, bilateral approach that the Roadmap sets out, then inevitably we are going to be looking for other things that can in the meantime allow us to make some progress."

Addressing reporters after emerging from the talks at UN headquarters in New York, Kofi Annan said that the withdrawal from Gaza should be seen as a "first step" as the issue of the West Bank also needed to be resolved.

He added: "… I would hope that what has happened does not foreclose the movement ahead and working through the Roadmap and ensuring that two States living in peace side by side, Israel and Palestine is established."

Mr Annan and Mr Blair also discussed the humanitarian situation surrounding the civil war in Darfur, Sudan, and the future of Iraq.

Mr Blair emphasised that the Coalition must stand firm to maintain peace in Iraq, as this would form the foundation for new elections and allow a new UN resolution copper-fastening a sovereign Iraqi government.

Mr Blair will meet with US President George Bush later today.

(gmcg)