London, Jan 11: Tony Blair's earnings are expected to touch the 15-million pound mark by July, two years since his departure from Downing Street, according to reports.

Blair is these days busy preparing for discussions in the Middle East on a subject of global importance.

The speech on climate change be delivered to a conference in Abu Dhabi sponsored by a Swiss bank is one of the many money-spinning engagements that are expected to take Blair's earnings to 15 million pounds by the seventh month of the year.

Jerusalem  - Tony Blair said Wednesday that he welcomed Israel's move to halt hostilities for a few hours to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza, but said more regular access was needed.

"I welcome Israel's decision to allow a temporary humanitarian lull today," he said in a statement.

Blair serves as the representative of the Quartet, which is made up of the United State, European Union, Russia and the United Nations.

London - Former British prime minister and special Middle East envoy Tony Blair said Tuesday he remained optimistic that current international efforts to end the fighting in Gaza could be successful.

"If we want to resolve this, we can," Blair, who is the special envoy of the so-called Middle East Quartet, said in a BBC interview from Jerusalem.

There could be an immediate stop to the fighting if "clear action" was taken to stop the supply of arms and money to Hamas, said Blair, indicating that the issue was at the centre of Egyptian-led talks with the militant Palestinian group.

London, Dec 27: U2 frontman Bono has been criticized by bandmate Larry Mullen over getting too friendly with "war criminal" Tony Blair.

Bono, who is a political campaigner, has often been pictured alongside the former prime minister. But drummer Larry Mullen doesn't like the intimacy.

"Tony Blair is a war criminal and I think he should be tried as a war criminal. Then I see Bono and him as pals and I'm going, `I don't like that'," The Sun quoted Mullen, as telling Q magazine.

"I understand why people find it really offensive," Mullen added.

London, Dec. 13 : Tony Blair converted to Catholicism only after quitting as British prime minister because he wanted to avoid profuse and idle talk about the decision.

In an interview about his religious faith to be broadcast on Sunday, The Independent quoted Blair as insisting that his conversion did not amount to a rejection of the Church of England and its teachings.

And he batted away suggestions that he may have held off from converting earlier in his life from fear that Catholicism would exclude him from the highest political office.

Washington, Dec. 8 : Middle East peace envoy and former British prime minister Tony Blair on Sunday called for calming tensions between Pakistan and India in the aftermath of the Mumbai terror attacks.

"I think we should be very worried. But I think the real causes of the problem, which are the continued acts of terrorism that keep visiting the Indian people. Mumbai was merely the worst attack of many worst attacks that have been going on over a significant period of time,” the Daily Times quoted him as telling CNN.