BBC NEWS | Middle East | Blair hopeful for Mid-East talks

Newly-appointed Middle East envoy Tony Blair has said he is optimistic that momentum can be regained in the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Attending his first meeting of the Quartet group in Lisbon, he said there was "no more important issue for peace and security in the world". It was the group's first meeting since the Islamic militant group Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip las

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"The Quartet is made up of the EU, the US, Russia and the UN.""The representatives were US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana."