Mideast peace talks may be held in Moscow

MOSCOW, Nov. 29 (UPI) -- The next conference on a peace settlement in the Middle East may be in Moscow, it was reported.

Russia and the United States have begun tentative plans for a conference early next year, The Washington Post reported. Officials from both countries and other states involved said one hope is that the Moscow conference would include direct talks between Israel and Syria.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told reporters after the Annapolis, Md., conference this week that Syria's presence at the conference is leading him to rethink his position that any talks on the Golan Heights should be delayed.

The Bush administration hopes the Annapolis conference is the beginning of a process, the newspaper said.

"Our belief is that if the two parties can make progress on the Israeli-Palestinian track, that that could possibly lead to openings along other tracks," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said. "We are going to try to encourage parties on both sides -- the Arab side as well as the Israeli side -- to take advantage of any potential openings that they see there. It's going to be up to them, in large part, to determine what sort of energy they devote to those."