CAIRO, Egypt—British Prime Minister Tony Blair arrived in Egypt for Middle East peace talks Saturday, saying the next few days and weeks would be critical in determining whether Israel and the Palestinians can break their cycle of violence. Blair held talks with President Hosni Mubarak, a key player in ending spiraling violence between rival Palestinian factions that has seen kidnappings and gunbattles in the West Bank and Gaza.
Blair also planned to meet Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, the grand sheik of al-Azhar Mosque, the Sunni Islamic world's most important institution.
Blair's visit came as Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas blamed Hamas for the increasingly violent power struggle between the Islamist group and his own Fatah faction, and said he planned to call new elections—a move Hamas has warned it will regard as a coup.
"If we don't get a new sense of urgency and momentum to the situation, it will continue to go backwards," Blair said earlier in Ankara, Turkey, the first stop on his Middle East tour.
"The next few days and weeks are critical moments of decision for the whole process."
He met earlier with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who Blair sees as a key ally in the quest for an Israeli-Palestinian peace settlement that could stabilize the whole region.
Blair also will visit Israel, the Palestinian territories and the United Arab Emirates over the next few days.
But his ability to improve the situation appeared limited—in part by Blair's own lack of leverage due to his support for the U.S.-led war in Iraq, and by the deteriorating Palestinian situation.
Months of tension between Fatah and Hamas has flared into gunbattles and kidnappings since Abbas' efforts to form a unity government with the Islamic group broke down last month.
