LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Monday that the formation of a Palestinian state was a key aim of the Middle East peace process.``A viable Palestinian state, as part of a negotiated and agreed settlement, which guarantees peace and security for Israel is the objective,'' Blair told a news conference in London after talks with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. ''The end we desire ... is a just peace in which Israelis and Palestinians live side by side, each in their own state, secure and able to prosper and develop,'' he said.
Arafat used the joint news conference to condemn last month's attacks on the United States and to urge Israel to resume Middle East negotiations ``immediately.''
Blair has said there is an urgent need to revive stalled Middle East peace moves to help neutralize attempts by Osama bin Laden -- Washington's prime suspect behind the September 11 suicide hijack attacks on New York and Washington -- to portray himself as a champion of the Palestinian cause.
PHOTO CAPTION :
Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair, left, greets Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat inside 10 Downing Street in London on Monday, Oct. 15, 2001. Arafat arrved in London for talks and will later fly to Ireland for a meeting with the Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern. (AP Photo/Michael Crabtree, Pool).