TEL AVIV, Oct 15: International backing for a breakthrough in the Middle East swelled Monday, with calls from Britain, France, Jordan and the United States to capitalise on a drop in violence and push for a lasting peace.

As Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat won backing from British Prime Minister Tony Blair for a Palestinian state, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon faced the fallout of his dual approach of liquidating Palestinians while bowing to US pressure to make peace.

“We both recognise that this is a time to act with new resolve,” Blair said with a smiling Arafat at his side.

Stressing the need for a “viable” Palestinian state, he urged a “just peace in which Israelis and Palestinians live side by side... putting behind them the bitterness of the past.”

French President Jacques Chirac and King Abdullah II of Jordan met Monday, agreeing on the urgent need to restore the peace process.

Abdullah underscored the need to take a two-pronged approach that would include “recognition of the principle of Palestinian statehood and guarantees of security for the state of Israel.”

“Now is the time for real steps in the peace process,” said Chirac who noted that US President George W. Bush was signalling a new willingness to engage in the peace process.

Bush’s Secretary of State Colin Powell said Washington was hopeful that moves by Israel to loosen restrictions on the Palestinians would lead to a further calming of Middle East violence.

“I hope this will be seen as the continuation of the process we’ve been trying to get started,” Powell said.

Washington wants calm in the region to keep sceptical Arab and Muslim states behind it as US bombers hunt down Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan.

But the relaxation of the Israeli army’s stranglehold on Palestinians in the West Bank backfired on Sharon, with his own army chief publicly saying the move could be a security threat and the ultra-nationalist wing of his broad coalition quitting the government.

Sharon defended his decision to loosen roadblocks and pull tanks out of Palestinian troublespots in Hebron during a speech at the opening of parliament’s winter session.

“We are not fighting the Palestinian people, we are fighting terrorism and its perpetrators,” he said.

He denied yielding to US and international pressure to make concessions, saying he would not compromise “on any question which jeopardises Israel’s security.”

The decision to slacken the hold on the Palestinians was reached after renewed joint security talks which had stalled two weeks ago following a bloody attack by Palestinian gunmen on a Jewish settlement in Gaza.

The right-wing leader was also under fire again from Palestinians, who accused Israel of killing a militant in a car bombing in the West Bank town of Nablus, the second member of the hardline Islamic group Hamas to be killed in 24 hours.—Afp