LONDON - Representatives of the Middle East Quartet met the grouping's new envoy, Tony Blair, for the first time Tuesday, a spokesman for Blair said.

Representatives of the Middle East Quartet met the grouping's new envoy, Tony Blair, pictured June 2007, for the first time Tuesday, a spokesman for Blair said. [AFP]

The Quartet - the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia - is finalising the aims and other details of Blair's role after he was named envoy following his resignation as British prime minister last month.

"Mr. Blair met privately for the first time with the Quartet envoys this afternoon following their meeting in London," a spokesman for Blair told AFP.

"It was a positive, practical discussion."

The spokesman added that after meeting the envoys, Blair met UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for the first time since becoming envoy.

He declined to comment on the former prime minister's travel plans to the Middle East.

"The point is to energise the political endeavours and to support the efforts made by Abu Mazen (Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas) and (Israeli Prime Minister) Ehud Olmert," an EU diplomat said.

"There are contacts which are starting to show results - we have to support them," he added.

A spokeswoman for the US embassy said Washington would be represented at the meeting by David Welch, the assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs.

Blair said shortly after handing over to Gordon Brown and accepting the Quartet job on June 27 that it would be a "huge challenge," adding that he expected to make a first trip to the region this month.

"I have to prepare the ground for a negotiated settlement, and the key to that is to prepare the Palestinians for statehood," he told The Northern Echo regional newspaper.

"There have to be two states: Israel confident in its security and Palestinians with a viable state not merely in terms of its territory, but also in terms of its institutions, its capability - otherwise there won't be a deal. That's the reality.

"Anywhere you go in the world, this is the issue which concerns people ... It is a fundamental issue."