British prime minister proposes Mideast peace talks in London

RAMALLAH, West Bank -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair offered Wednesday to host a one-day Mideast conference in the new year to help rehabilitate the battered Palestinian Authority, encourage reform and serve as a bridge to renewed peace talks, stalled by four years of violence.

Blair, the highest-ranking visitor to the West Bank since Yasser Arafat's death on Nov. 11, said a growing sense of hope must now be translated into action, while endorsing Israel's precondition for peace talks -- an end to Palestinian attacks -- and the Palestinian goal of an independent state.

Wednesday was the first time Blair talked in public about his proposed London conference, considerably scaling down the hopes of many who expected a full-blown British Middle East peace push.

Instead, Blair said, the conference would be a one-day affair in March dealing only with reforms in the Palestinian administration and additional aid. He said it would serve as a "bridge to the road map," the stalled international peace plan leading to a Palestinian state, but calling a conference to discuss substantive issues "is not for me to undertake."

Interim Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas said he welcomed the idea of the conference, although the Palestinians initially hoped for a broader agenda, including key disputes with Israel over Jerusalem, the fate of Palestinian refugees and the borders of a Palestinian state.

Despite Blair's peace push, violence persisted Wednesday.

Israeli troops entered the Khan Younis refugee camp in southern Gaza after midnight for the second time in a week, trying to stop militants from firing rockets and mortars at nearby Israeli settlements and army bases.

As Israeli bulldozers flattened damaged structures, soldiers exchanged fire with Palestinians, killing three.