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London: Middle East peace ambassador Tony Blair said on Friday he believed a Palestinian-Israeli peace deal could be reached before the US president leaves office.
Blair’s comments came as Bush, who leaves office in January 2009, visited the West Bank in a Middle East peace tour.
"Sure, it is absolutely possible to have a peace deal by the end of the year if people want to make it happen," Blair said after meeting Bush in Occupied Jerusalem.
However, he cautioned that to achieve peace, those involved had to be prepared "to have the courage to take the difficult decisions to make the difficult compromises."
"Given the determination there is to succeed and given the desire on the part of the American leadership, the Israeli leadership, the Palestinian leadership to see it happen, I think people could be surprised this year," he said.
Israel has said it will not agree to a peace deal unless Palestinians put an end to rocket attacks from Gaza. Blair said he understood Israel’s decision.
"But if we can achieve those terms and give the Palestinian people a state, then I think there is nothing more important in the battle against... extremism and terrorism that is fairly deep-rooted in many parts of the world today," Blair said.
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