LONDON, Dec 23 (AFP) - British Prime Minister Tony Blair is taking a valuable step back toward the roadmap to Middle East peace, even though the success of his London conference will ultimately depend on his more powerful US ally, British newspapers said Thursday.
The conservative Daily Telegraph, Britain's best-selling broadsheet, said Blair was staying "true to his conviction" to make the Israeli-Palestinian peace process a top foreign policy priority.
"Mr. Blair is acting as a runner for the Americans in steering the Palestinians towards the negotiating table," it said.
"Washington's priorities could prove different to those of Mr. Blair. But at least he has set the ball rolling."
After talks in the region with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Mahmud Abbas, the PLO chairman and likely future Palestinian president, Blair announced he would host a conference in London in March to plan for Palestinian statehood.
The one-day gathering, focused on "practical" issues to help prepare for statehood, would be chaired by Blair, and attended by representatives from the sponsors of the roadmap -- the United States, United Nations, European Union and Russia.
The roadmap proposed a series of diplomatic steps to secure lasting peace in the region including the creation of a Palestinian state in 2005.
British newspapers praised the likely, yet unconfirmed, attendance of incoming US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and called the fact that Sharon was giving it a miss disappointing.
But they withheld enthusiasm over the prospect of yet another conference, citing the disappointment of so many failed peace efforts for the volatile region in the past.
"Conferences that relate to the Middle East have a particularly depressing record," The Times said.
"Even so, Tony Blair is right to press ahead with the meeting" in London, it added.
"The London event should not be exaggerated, for Britain is only a minor player in the Middle East drama, and Downing Street was rightly not making too much of the conference yesterday," the left-leaning Guardian said in a rare agreement with The Times.
"Nevertheless, if it helps to fill part of the political vacuum, and if it helps to draw the Americans deeper into the process, it will have been worth it," it added.
Both The Times and Daily Telegraph noted that, even with Blair's backing, the lion's share of effort to revive the stalled peace efforts still had to come from the Palestinians.
"Full-scale commitment (to the roadmap) will depend on whether Mr. Abbas can wean the Palestinian Authority from its violent, corrupt and autocratic past," the Telegraph said.
"Put undiplomatically, the prime minister (Blair) would like to help to ensure that the post-Arafat Palestinian Authority is far less corrupt, considerably more professional with security issues, and a lot better at economic management than its predecessor," The Times continued.
The emergence of a new Palestinian leadership after the death of Yasser Arafat and the prospect of an Israeli pullout from the Gaza Strip next year has prompted hope of a breakthrough in the peace process after more than four years of violence.
12/23/2004 02:11 GMT - AFP