Report: Moscow to host Mideast summit

MUSCAT, Oman, Nov. 10 (UPI) -- Russia will be the site of a 2008 Middle East peace summit to follow this year's summit in the United States, it was reported Saturday.

Citing the Saudi newspaper Alwatan, Haaretz reported that the January 2008 summit in Moscow will act as a follow-up to this month's highly anticipated diplomatic meeting in Annapolis, Md.

As U.S. officials make final preparations for the 2007 summit this week, Palestinian National Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas reportedly asked that Syria be allowed to take part.

Abbas' request comes in the wake of comments by Imad Moustapha, Syria's ambassador to the United States, who called the Annapolis talks a "waste" Wednesday.

Moustapha's comments reinforced Syria's stance that only a discussion of the Golan Heights at the talks could prompt its involvement.

The Golan Heights once belonged to Syria, but were placed under Israeli control following 1967's Six-Day War.

Haaretz said Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice discussed Syria's possible involvement in the 2007 summit, but no official decision has been announced.