Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorie called on Britain and the United States on Monday to re-engage in his people's conflict with Israel to push forward the peace process which he said was at a crucial stage.
"Today the Palestinian-Israeli conflict may be arriving at the rare positive turning point in the history of this long struggle," Qorie said in a lecture at the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London.
"This depends really on the proper performance of the international community...they should be able to cope with reform of the greater Middle East by looking into the reality of the existing problems of the region," he said.
Persistent violence has sidelined a US-backed "road map" peace plan and Israel blames the Palestinian leadership's failure to rein in militants for the impasse.
Qorie warned time was running out for the "two-state solution" envisaged in the road map plan to which he was committed and he said he would meet Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon only if they were likely to reach a breakthrough.
"Moderates and forces for peace are losing credibility as time passes," he said. Qorie called on the leaders of the G8 group of the world's industrial powers to try to speed up the peace process.
"There is no doubt that such an important international approach will revive the road map," he said, adding the US would be a key player.
"Without the US, it is impossible to have peace," he said.

Copyright Reuters, 2004

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