BRITAIN: British prime minister Tony Blair hopes today's London conference will see the first practical steps taken toward establishing what was described as "the capacity of a putative Palestinian state".
To Downing Street's relief, an initially reluctant Mahmoud Abbas, the new Palestinian president, had talks with Mr Blair last night and only agreed to attend today's conference following the announcement that US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice will be present.
Foreign ministers from some 26 countries will also be at the Queen Elizabeth Conference Centre this morning to hear opening statements by Mr Blair, Ms Rice and UN secretary general Kofi Annan.
However Downing Street sources last night stressed the practical and limited ambitions for today's conference, in recognition of the determination of the Palestinians - and the absent Israelis - that it is not a fully fledged peace conference or a substitute for the negotiation of the land-for-peace deal which must precede the creation of the two-state solution favoured by British and the US.
Mr Blair has said he hopes the meeting could be "a bridge back to the roadmap" for a Middle East settlement. And his spokesman said criticisms of the limited focus of today's talks missed the point that "it was always about establishing the capacity of a putative Palestinian state".
He added that "viable" meant not only that the proposed Palestinian state should be democratic, but that it should have proper security and be both economically and politically viable, with arrangements in place for example for its judiciary, civil service and electoral processes.
After this morning's opening statements, the US will lead group discussions about the creation of one coherent security force, while the EU and World Bank will lead discussions on governance and the economy.
Mr Abbas apparently planned to send his prime minister, Ahmed Korei, as an expression of his scepticism about the conference. However yesterday's Guardian reported that Downing Street finally persuaded Mr Abbas to change his mind about 10 days ago, in part because Ms Rice and several Arab delegations had confirmed they would be attending.