The immediate complaint was that he did not meet Israeli officials during his one-day trip to Ramallah but high-ranking Israelis went further, accusing Lord Levy of being partly to blame for a recent deterioration in relations between the two countries. Officials in Jerusalem claim that the Jewish millionaire fundraiser, who is a tennis partner of Mr Blair, is a long-standing supporter of Israel’s centre-left Labour Party and has a personal antipathy to Israel’s hawkish Prime Minister that has contributed to a souring of relations with Mr Blair.

“The Israeli leadership has no respect for Lord Levy, there is great suspicion of him,” one source in Jerusalem said.

“He is not viewed as an honest broker. He is considered by both Ariel Sharon and Bibi Netanyahu to be one- sided and totally identified with the Israeli Labour Party.”

Another senior Israeli went further. “Lord Levy is barely on speaking terms with the Israeli Government,” he said. “The last time he met Sharon the two disagreed so badly that Levy was almost thrown out of the office.”

Rows have included one over Britain’s refusal to sell parts for Phantom jets and other military spares to Israel amid concern that they may be used against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza. Mr Sharon has made no secret of his displeasure at visits to London by President Assad of Syria and the Israeli opposition leader Amram Mitzna, and matters came to a head last week when he refused to let Palestinian Cabinet ministers visit London for a conference on reform.

British officials dismissed the allegations of bias and complaints over the visit. They insisted that it was merely a follow-up to the London conference made necessary because Israel had banned the Palestinian Cabinet ministers Yasser Abed Rabbo, Salam Fayyad, Saeb Erekat and Nabil Qassis from attending, and Mr Blair wanted to check on their assurances and progress on reform before flying to Washington to brief President Bush.

One said: “It was deliberately low key. He did not see Mr Arafat.” Officials claimed that Israel was notified of the trip through “diplomatic channels” but confirmed that it was not co-ordinated with the Israelis, pointedly saying: “They obstructed the London meeting.”

Conceding that Lord Levy had a long assocation with Israel’s Labour Party — he was close to both Yitzhak Rabin and Ehud Barak — one senior British diplomat said that he was “full of admiration” at how the peer handled a difficult role. “As a professional diplomat I find him a thorough professional in dealing with his brief. In his meetings with Sharon he was forthright and polite.

There was full dialogue,” he said. “He is a strong supporter of Israel and I think he does recognise that we need to deal with whoever is in power. It is quite unfair to blame him for certain minor squalls in the relationship between Israel and Britain.”

The war of words has to be seen against a background of disagreement over President Bush’s proposals to create a Palestinian state by 2005, announced last June.

Although America appears to have accepted Israel’s line that there can be no dealing with Yassir Arafat in discussions over such a state, Mr Sharon is frustrated that Europe refuses to accept Israel’s mantra that “Arafat is irrelevant”, or to make progress conditional on Palestinian concessions.

Earlier this week Mr Sharon attacked the three non-US members of the quartet of international mediators — the EU, Russia and the UN — accusing them of failing to adopt a “balanced” approach.

One senior Israeli source voiced concern that Mr Blair would try to push Mr Bush to present his road map to peace at the Camp David talks scheduled for January 31.

“I expect relations between Britain and Israel to deteriorate. We have already seen signs that the British want to improve relations with the Arab world in advance of the war with Iraq. We have been warned that the British are planning to press the issue of settlements,” he said.

• Hebron: Three Israeli soldiers were killed yesterday in a Palestinian gun attack near this West Bank city, the military said. Hamas said that it had carried out the attack. (AP)

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