British Prime Minister Mr Tony Blair will press ahead with a conference about Middle East peace talks next week despite Israel's refusal to let Palestinian delegates attend, officials said today.
"The talks are set for Tuesday," a British government official said. He declined to give further details about who would attend.
Following suicide bombings which killed 22 people in Tel Aviv this week, Israel said talk of reform was futile as long as President Yasser Arafat still ran the Palestinian Authority and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon declared Palestinians would not be allowed to travel to London.
Mr Blair had hoped talks bringing together Palestinian leaders with the "quartet" of UN, European Union, Russian and US negotiators, could be help revive Israeli-Palestinian negotiations which have been stymied by two years of violence.
A diplomatic source said Terje Roed-Larsen, the special UN coordinator in the Middle East, would be present. Other nations and blocs are likely to be represented at ambassadorial level.
Earlier, Mr Blair's official spokesman said details of the conference "were being finalised". One option suggested was that Palestinian representatives could be involved via video phone.
Blair's plans have met with fury from Israel, testing relations to the limit.
Mr Sharon has so far refused to meet Britain's ambassador, Mr Sherard Cowper-Coles, who has a letter from the prime minister spelling out what he wants from the meeting. They are expected to come face to face at the weekend.