Tony Blair, Mideast envoy of the Quartet comprising the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations, speaks during a news conference in Gaza City on June 15, 2009. Blair called Monday on Hamas to change its policy and called for isolating extremists in a bid to rebuild the Gaza Strip. [Xinhua]

Visiting Mideast envoy Tony Blair on Monday called on Islamic Hamas movement to change its policy and called for isolating extremists to rebuild the Gaza Strip.

"It would help if there was a change of policy also in the point of view of Hamas," Blair told a news conference in Gaza city.

"We need a change of policy that helps the people here and isolates the extremists," he said.

Blair added that such a policy would allow goods and materials to enter the Israeli-blockaded territory and "help the rebuilding of Gaza and the legitimate economy to thrive" rather than using the underground tunnels between Gaza and Egypt to bring in goods.

Meanwhile, Blair stressed that negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians must lead to building a Palestinian state from the bottom up.

Blair, who represents the so-called Quartet, said he came to Gaza "to address directly the concerns of people here, the suffering, the situation they find themselves in and how we can change it."

Blair said his concern was that "we do not forget the importance of trying to build a Palestinian state from the bottom up as well as negotiated from the top down."

The former British prime minister visited Gaza briefly and met with United Nations (UN) officials and Palestinian private sector representatives at the headquarter of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).

He did not meet any Hamas officials, the Islamic movement which controls the Gaza Strip since 2007. The Quartet, which comprises the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations, bans official talks with Hamas unless the latter recognizes Israel and accepts peace deals.

Israel imposed a blockade on the Gaza Strip when Hamas seized the territory in June 2007. In January 2009, Israel completed a three-week offensive in the Gaza Strip, killing more than 1,400 Palestinians and destroying thousands of houses.

(Xinhua News Agency June 16, 2009)