LONDON, Nov. 8 (Xinhuanet) -- Middle East would top the agenda of British Prime Minister Tony Blair's upcoming trip to the United States as Blair is trying to revive the peace process in the region, Downing Street said on Monday.

    Blair would be the first foreign leader to meet US President George W. Bush since his Nov. 2 re-election when the two leaders meet on Thursday in Washington.

    "It is important to pause and look at where we were. It is inevitable given the length of the US election process that thingswould be on hold for that reason but also for reasons more integral to the Middle East itself," Blair's official spokesman told reporters in London.

    "We all had to recognize that the process had lost momentum so the first priority therefore was to restore that momentum and to do so by clearly stating our intent that we do want to see the process revitalized," the spokesman said.

    "In terms of process and procedure we should take that one stepat a time. The most important thing first of all was to get some momentum back into the process," he added.

    At Blair's ruling Labor Party annual conference in September, Blair has pledged to make the revival of the Middle East peace process his personal priority after the US presidential election.

    Shortly after Bush's re-election, Blair said the need to revitalize the Middle East peace process is "the single most pressing political challenge in our world today."

    During Blair's two-day trip to the United States, Iraq obviously was an important issue as was the Middle East and EU-US relations, according to Downing Street. Enditem