Blair: Palestinian state can be built from his 'bottom up'

Improving conditions for West Bank Palestinians shows that a Palestinian state can be "built from the bottom up while it's being negotiated from the top down," Quartet Mideast envoy Tony Blair said Tuesday.

Speaking to Reuters on a visit to Nablus, Blair echoed comments he made to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Vice Premier Silvan Shalom on Monday that the Palestinian Authority's improving security capability as well as Israel's removal of some checkpoints had brought economic progress.

He also said he believed US-led efforts to revive the stalled peace process would soon lead to negotiations.

"The Americans are working very hard on this ... in the next few weeks, next few months, we're going to see the launch of credible political negotiations," Blair told Reuters in Nablus. More crap