British Prime Minister Tony Blair refused on Monday to endorse publicly the plan by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert for a partial withdrawal from the West Bank.
In his first meeting with Blair since succeeding Ariel Sharon, Olmert outlined his proposal for the closure of some of the more remote Jewish settlements in the West Bank while annexing three major settlement blocs.
The Israeli prime minister told a Downing Street press conference that the proposed unilateral withdrawal in the West Bank, following on from the pullout from Gaza last year, was "generous" and would leave the Palestinians with 90 percent of the West Bank.
Blair insisted the only way forward for Israel was not unilateral action but to embark on negotiations with the Palestinians to end the conflict.
"I do not want to go down any other path than a negotiated settlement," Blair said.
He did not deviate from the long-term position that Israel should return to its 1967 borders and hand over the West Bank in its entirety to the Palestinians to form their own state.
Blair offered one concession to Olmert. He left open a door to Olmert's plan when he said that if negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians failed to make progress, the status quo was not an option.
He warned the international community that if it did not do enough to make negotiations work, he expected the Israelis to act unilaterally.
"We, the international community, have got a choice," Blair said. "We either put our best effort into making sure that negotiated settlement becomes a reality, or we are going to face a different reality."
The concession is partly because Blair does not want to alienate the Israeli government. With his tenure as prime minister nearing its end, Blair is keen to play an active role in trying to rekindle Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, according to western diplomats in Israel.
Olmert hinted that if negotiations made progress, there might be a role for Blair.
The Israeli prime minister is due to continue his European tour with a visit to Paris today to meet French President Jacques Chirac.
In recent years, Israel has dismissed European opinion as too sympathetic to the Palestinians. Olmert's visit is part of a new Israeli drive to win over European minds.
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