Tony Blair, the new Middle East envoy of the international Quartet of peace mediators met with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on Monday afternoon, local daily Ha'aretz reported.
Blair and Livni met behind closed door and little details on the discussions were released to the media.
A spokesman for Blair was quoted as saying following the one- hour meeting that "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 fulfill the demanding mandate Mr. Blair has taken on."
"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," he added.
During his visit here, Blair is also scheduled to meet Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, President Shimon Peres and Defense Minister Ehud Barak.
The Quartet representative has asked to keep a low profile on these meetings, and will only issue a statement to the press after his meeting with Peres.
He is expected to go to the West Bank city of Ramallah on Tuesday for meetings with Palestinian National Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.
The former British prime minister arrived here earlier in the day following a brief stop in Amman where he held talks with Jordanian Foreign Minister Abdel Ilah Khatib.
Senior political sources in Jerusalem speculate that he will begin studying the Palestinian situation before starting his official mandate of helping the Palestinians build institutions of state.
Source: Xinhua
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