Palestinian president says follow-up peace conference "important"

Mar 21, 2008, 14:10 GMT

Ramallah - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called Friday for an international conference on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process to take place in Moscow as a continuation of the Parley in Annapolis, Maryland, last year.

'We stressed the importance of holding the follow-up conference,' he told a news conference after meeting visiting Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Israel, however has not committed itself to the conference, plans for which were announced after the Annapolis meet, on November 27 last year, restarted the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks after a seven-year hiatus.

Senior Israeli-and Palestinian officials have been meeting regularly, but the talks, held amid a deliberate news blackout, have been plagued by Palestinian rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip and Israeli raids to thwart them, and announced Israeli settlement plans in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Lavrov, addressing the news conference with Abbas, called on Israel to halt its settlement activities and to end its blockade of the Gaza Strip.

He said the blockade should be stopped to enable 'all Palestinians in Gaza to live in peace.'

'I call for ending all military activities which lead to civilian casualties,' Lavrov said.

Israel first imposed a siege on the Gaza Strip Israel had first closed the Gaza border crossings in June 2006, after militants from the Strip staged a cross-border raid and snatched an Israeli soldier, who is still being held somewhere in the enclave.

The closure was intensified in June last year, when Hamas gunmen routed forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas to seize complete security control of the Strip, and it was tightened even further in January after an upsurge in rockets and mortar attacks from on southern Israel.

Lavrov held talks with Israeli officials Thursday, after visiting Syria.