MOSCOW, September 26 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's foreign minister has held discussions with the Palestinian leader in New York on plans for holding a Mideast peace conference in Moscow, the Foreign Ministry said on Saturday.
Sergei Lavrov met with Mahmoud Abbas on Friday, after the Palestinian leader addressed the United Nations General Assembly, urging Israel to halt all settlement activity in the West Bank.
"The sides agreed on the inadmissibility of settlement expansion and other unilateral actions relating to issues of final [Palestinian] status," the ministry said in a statement.
Lavrov highlighted the need to unite the Palestinian people on terms acceptable to the international community, in order to create a viable state peacefully existing alongside Israel.
The diplomat also "expressed the willingness of Russia, along with other members of the Quartet of international mediators and all interested parties, to use all means available to achieve these goals, including the holding of an international conference on the Middle East in Moscow."
"Practical issues of Russian-Palestinian relations were also touched on," the statement said.
Abbas is now in Havana for talks with Cuban President Raul Castro.
