Russia to host next Mid East conference

Russia is to host a follow-up Middle East peace conference in Moscow following the conference just ended in the US city of Annapolis, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told Russian news agencies Wednesday.

“Everyone welcomed our readiness to hold the next meeting in Moscow. The timing and the agenda, of course, needs to be agreed on,” Lavrov was quoted as saying by Interfax on his way back from Washington to Moscow.

At the US-sponsored Annapolis session Israel and the Palestinians pledged Tuesday to seek a peace deal by the end of 2008, relaunching negotiations frozen for seven years.

Moscow, Wednesday, AFP