Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told Russian President Vladimir Putin today he is optimistic about a Middle East peace summit proposed by Moscow, but Washington struck a more cautious note.
Russia, a mediator in the Middle East, sees the conference it wants to hold in Moscow as a follow-up to a meeting in the US town of Annapolis in November that relaunched peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.
"We believe the Moscow conference will be successful and help to achieve progress towards the Middle East settlement," Mr Abbas told Mr Putin at the start of their meeting at the Russian leader's residence in Novo-Ogaryovo outside Moscow.
Mr Putin, who arrived in Novo-Ogaryovo from meeting Italy's Prime Minister-elect Silvio Berlusconi in Sardinia earlier on Friday, warmly greeted Abbas.
"You have come at a difficult moment and the situation is difficult. But we are certain that you and Israeli prime minister (Ehud) Olmert are making joint efforts to move forward with talks. We welcome and support that," he said.
Neither leader gave a date for the summit and as he flew out of Russia, Mr Abbas told reporters no agreement on a date had been reached, Russian news agencies reported.
The US State Department struck a cautious note. "There's no agreement on a date, or the particular agenda of the conference," a spokesman said.
Mr Olmert had earlier signalled reluctance to attend a Middle East summit proposed by Russia, but did not entirely rule it out.