By Harinder Mishra

Jerusalem, Sept 11 (PTI) In a major breakthrough for peace in the Middle East, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas today told visiting UK Prime Minister Tony Blair that he was ready for an "unconditional" meeting with his Israeli counterpart Ehud Olmert.

After talks with Blair in the West Bank town of Ramallah, the Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman said he wished to express the Palestinian "readiness to resume serious negotiations fully." Abbas said he was "ready to meet Prime Minister (Ehud) Olmert without prior conditions and we are ready to begin immediatly the preparations for this meeting." The development, described by Blair as "a window of opportunity" for peace in Middle East, came a day after the British Premier secured similar assurances from Olmert that he would meet Abbas and work closely with him to advance peace efforts.

Olmert yesterday said ``I assured Prime Minister Blair that I am ready to work closely with Mahmoud Abbas. I also told Prime Minister Blair that I intend to meet with him." Speaking after a meeting with Abbas today, Blair stressed the importance of the Palestinians forming a government of national unity that recognised Israel.

There was a "window of opportunity" for both sides to engage in talks, he said and pointed out that "we have a plan to get there - the roadmap," a reference to the Middle East Peace plan.

Acknlowledging that relations between the Palestinians and the Israelis are particularly bad right now, he called on both parties to work to revive the peace process and pledged support to any such effort. PTI