Brussels, 25/03/2008 (Agence Europe) - Meeting on Tuesday 26 March in Brussels for the second EP working group on the Middle East, chaired by Hans-Gert Pöttering, members of the Paris conference follow-up committee called on Israelis and Palestinians to respect the commitments made at Annapolis. Despite the agreement on obtaining a two-state solution, Tony Blair said that there was a disparity between the hoped for result and the situation on the ground. He also called for negotiations between the two sides to be more credible. The Middle East Quartet special envoy said that the current difficulty was that no politician was able to cross this credibility threshold. He said that he would like to implement a series of measures for reducing the burden of occupation and increase the Palestinians' ability to impose order on their territory. In connection with Hamas controlled territory, Blair said that there was a lesson to draw from the past few months - the current strategy in Gaza is not working. He also stated that they were approaching a turning point and really had to make some decisions. The Norwegian foreign affairs minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, said that there should be no new settlements built on Palestinian territory. His French colleague, Jean-Pierre Jouyet, in charge of European affairs, backed him up on this point and called for concrete and visible gestures on the ground from Israel (A.B.)