International Quartet's envoy to the Middle East Tony Blair, who is in a visit to Egypt, said on Wednesday that the Quartet is "strongly" supporting the ongoing Egyptian efforts to consolidate a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

Following talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Blair said it's the most important move to stabilize the fragile truce in Gaza, where Palestinian groups and Israel carried out ceasefire respectively on January 18 after a 22-day Israeli attacks, the Egyptian MENA news agency reported.

Blair said it's important to maintain the ceasefire in order to implement an Egyptian initiative, which also calls for reopening the crossings, lifting the Israeli siege on Gaza and reaching inter-Palestinian reconciliation.

The Quartet envoy said the Palestinians in Gaza need "all forms of humanitarian aid," noting it's necessary to push forward Egypt' s efforts for the reconstruction of Gaza.

The 22-day Israeli military operation on Gaza that ended on January 18 had caused a severe humanitarian crisis in the enclave due to shortage of food and other basic needs of fuels and cooking gas.

On Tuesday, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit voiced his hope that a lasting truce between Israel and Palestinian militant groups could be reached in early February.

As for the inter-Palestinian unity, Abul Gheit said he hopes a Palestinian reconciliation agreement "would be reached during the third week of February."

According to earlier reports, Egypt has proposed to start a "lasting" truce between Israel and Palestinian militant groups on February 5 and resume the inter-Palestinian national unity dialogue on February 22.

The top Egyptian diplomat also said his country has offered to host a meeting gathering all international donor countries on February 28 for the rebuilding of Gaza.

(Xinhua News Agency January 28, 2009)