DUSHANBE , July 23, 2008, Asia-Plus - Russia intends to hold a Middle East conference in Moscow , Russian Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin said at the Tuesday meeting of the UN Security Council.

The Russian initiative gained support of the international mediating quartet at the recent meeting in Berlin , as well as of a broad range of other interested sides, he said.

“The Moscow forum is bound to give a strong impetus to the Annapolis process and to promote peace efforts on other tracks of the Middle East settlement process,” Churkin said.

“We strongly support the Russian proposal to hold a Middle East conference in Moscow ,” League of Arab States (LAS) Representative to the United Nations Yahya Mahmassani told Itar-Tass. He voiced hope that the Moscow meeting might create a new dimension in the Arab-Israeli settlement.

In the words of Russian diplomats, details of the Russian offer will be discused at a quartet meeting during the ministerial week in New York in late September, on the sideslines of the political debate of the 63rd session of the UN General Assembly.