Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Tuesday morning received Tony Blair, the envoy of the international Quartet on Mideast, at the northern Egyptian port city of Alexandria, the official MENA news agency reported.
The meeting between them focused on ways to push forward the Middle East peace process deadlocked since 2000 when the Palestinian uprising broke out, said the report.
Mubarak said Egypt was ready to cooperate with all parties concerned to render an upcoming U.S.-proposed Mideast meeting a success, Presidential Spokesman Suleiman Awad was quoted as saying following the meeting between Mubarak and Blair.
On July 16, U.S. President George W. Bush proposed to held an international conference reported to be scheduled for November, which would bring together Israel, the Palestinians and some neighboring Arab states to help resume the stalled Middle East peace talks.
Egypt is ready to help any international efforts to put an end to the suffering of the Palestinian people and push forward the Palestinian cause, said Mubarak.
Mubarak also expressed his country's full support to Blair's new mission as the Quartet envoy on the Middle East, Awad said.
Blair, who was recently appointed as the Quartet envoy after he retired from the post of British prime minister, is on a regional tour in the Middle East, which has taken him to Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
Blair will report the outcome of his ongoing Mideast visit to the international Quartet, which groups the United Nations, the European Union, the United States and Russia, during its upcoming meeting slated for Sept. 23 in New York, according to MENA's Monday report.
Meanwhile, Mubarak also held a meeting with visiting Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'alema at Ras el Tin Palace in Alexandria, during which they discussed the latest development in the Middle East.
Following the meeting with Mubarak, D'alema said a wide-scale political move will be carried out in the coming weeks to prepare for the upcoming international peace conference on Mideast.
Describing his meeting with Mubarak as successful and fruitful, D'alema voiced Italy's appreciation of the U.S. initiative to hold such a gathering on Mideast, asserting that his country will exert more efforts to maintain peace and stability in the region.
Answering a question on holding the meeting likely without inviting Syria, D'alema said all preparation work would be the responsibility of the United States, MENA said.
The Italian top diplomat, however, stressed that the conference should include all parties concerned with the aim of reaching stability and peace in the region.
Last weekend, Mubarak said that he was making further political efforts to coordinate the stance of Arab and Western countries in a bid to secure the Mideast peace conference a success.
The meetings with Blair and D'alema are parts of the efforts on this issue made by Mubarak, who also met King Abdullah II of Jordan later in the day to discuss the prospective international conference on Mideast.
Source: Xinhua
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