Will Blair quit his hopeless Mideast task?

The Middle East grapevine is buzzing with rumours that Tony Blair is ready to step down from his post as envoy of the so-called Quartet - the US, UN, European Union and Russia - engaged in the search for peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

Appointed with great fanfare last summer, Blair is said to have become increasingly frustrated by the unwillingness of either side to make the concessions required for any breakthrough. Although the official line remains that there is still a chance of a deal being struck before President Bush leaves office at the end of the year, it is widely accepted in diplomatic circles that the US 'road map' intended to guide the parties towards a lasting settlement is effectively dead and buried.

When Blair took on the envoy's job, installing himself and a sizeable entourage in the splendour of the American Colony hotel in Jerusalem, insiders reported that he believed the lessons he had learned from steering through the Northern Ireland peace process could be applied equally successfully in the Middle East. But doubters wondered aloud how he could combine a role that has defeated generations of international statesmen with churning out books and gallivanting across the United States on the lecture tours that have made him a fortune on the side. Some cynics even suggested that what really motivated him was the prospect of a Nobel peace prize if he could pull it off.

Alas for Blair, the Israelis have never been very happy about having him around, preferring to deal directly with the only real power broker in the region - that is, the ultra-supportive Bush administration. As one pundit cruelly observed: "Why bother with the monkey when you've got a direct line to the organ grinder?" It hardly made his job any easier to be dealing with a desperately weak Palestinian leadership and an Israeli PM - Ehud Olmert - mired in corruption scandals.

Even the modest initiatives he has produced - reducing the number of Israeli army checkpoints clogging up the West Bank and initiating projects to kick-start the virtually moribund Palestinian economy - have fallen by the wayside.

As Blair understands, nothing lasting can be achieved without talking directly to the Hamas militants who rule the Gaza Strip, which the White House bitterly opposes. So Blair is reduced to peripheral duties, such as last week's excursion to Gaza, to inspect a sewage plant and meet aid workers who frequently operate under fire. However, en route to Gaza there came a warning from Israeli security of a 'credible' threat to his safety and the trip was hastily abandoned amid whispers in some quarters that the Israelis had no wish for him to see how bad things are on the ground in Gaza.

With both US presidential candidates now talking tough about pursuing Bush's war on terror, Blair may have concluded his exalted role was fast becoming a non-job. ·