Just hours after standing down as British premier, Blair was named international envoy for the Middle East Quartet which sponsors the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, in the doldrums for years.

"When Blair was prime minister and one of the closest friends of George W. Bush he did nothing for the Palestinian cause. So what can he do now as the Quartet's envoy?" said Middle East political expert Oreib al-Rintawi.

Rintawi, head of the Al-Quds Centre for Political Studies in Amman, said Blair's appointment would not serve the peace process as he was not a "neutral party".

"He is one of the architects of the Iraq war and one of the Western leaders who played a role in promoting the destructive policies of the American neo-conservatives in the Bush administration."

In his new role, Blair is expected to spearhead efforts to create a Palestinian state, and mobilise international assistance to the Palestinians.

But his mission will be complicated by the division of Palestinian society following the bloody takeover of the Gaza Strip by Hamas, which remains boycotted by Israel and the West as a terrorist group.

"Palestinian statehood is still pie in the sky. To quote president Bush, it is still a vision," said George Giacaman, a Palestinian academic and political commentator based in the occupied West Bank.

"It doesn't seem that he is able to influence Israeli-US policy," he said.

Unless Blair talked at the very least to elected Hamas officials, Giacaman added, "it will undermine his ability to work with both sides."