MIDDLE EAST: Russian president Vladimir Putin arrived in Israel yesterday evening just hours after proposing that Israel and the Palestinians hold a Middle East conference in Moscow later this year - after Israel has withdrawn from the Gaza Strip. The conference would be aimed at implementing the internationally backed road map peace plan.
In Gaza, meanwhile, 50,000 opponents of the plan of Israel prime minister Ariel Sharon to evacuate all 7,000 settlers living in 21 settlements in the Strip, gathered to protest the withdrawal.
At a press conference with Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, during a stop in Cairo on his way to Israel, Mr Putin said "we should convene a conference for all these countries concerned [ with the peace process] and the Quartet, next autumn".
The Quartet includes the US, the EU, the UN and Russia.
While Mr Putin, who is making the first visit by a Soviet or Russian head of state to Israel, said he planned to discuss the idea with Mr Sharon, the initial Israeli reaction was lukewarm.
Mark Regev, a spokesman for the foreign ministry, said that the second stage of the road map "specifically mentions a conference, so we don't have a problem with a conference". But he made it clear there was much to do before that stage was reached.
Mr Sharon, who has never been enthusiastic about the road map, has insisted that the sides are still in a pre-road map phase and that his Gaza pull-out might lead to the renewal of the plan.
The Israeli leader, who is not keen to engage in talks over a final status agreement with the Palestinians, has insisted there can be no return to negotiations until the Palestinians dismantle armed groups, as stipulated in the first phase of the road map.
The Palestinians, by contrast, have insisted that the sides are already engaged in the first phase of the plan.
Senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said the Palestinian Authority backed Mr Putin's idea, believing it was "high time to convene such an international conference", which he said "would serve the purpose of resuming permanent status negotiations between the two parties".
Also on the agenda in talks today between Mr Putin and Mr Sharon will be Russia's refusal to join international pressure on Iran to halt its nuclear programme and Moscow's plan to sell anti-aircraft missiles to Syria.
In Israel, Mr Putin's visit is being seen as an attempt by the Russian leader to upgrade his country's standing in the Middle East and its role in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
In Gaza, opponents of Mr Sharon's intention to pull out of the Strip said they hoped yesterday's rally would serve as a dress rehearsal for their plan to bring hundreds of thousands of people to the area when the withdrawal gets under way, in order to thwart it.