DAMASCUS, May 24 (Xinhua) -- Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and visiting Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Sunday discussed Moscow's plan to hold an international conference on the Middle East issue, official SANA news agency reported.

    Lavrov expressed Moscow's plan to "organize a conference on the Middle East in order to advance the peace process," and briefed the Syrian president on the preparation work Russia has done for the international conference, according to the report.

    Al-Assad was quoted as saying that the conference must be well-prepared and set out objectives as well as the positions of those parties concerned in the chronic Israeli-Arab conflict.

    On Saturday night, Lavrov expressed his hope that the Palestinians should send a united team to attend the Russia conference during his meeting with Khaled Meshaal, the Damascus-based exiled leader of Hamas, which ousted rival Fatah forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas from the Gaza Strip in June 2007.

    In November 2007, the United States hosted a Middle East peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland, which enabled the resumption of the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

    In January, Russia, a member of the international Quartet on Middle East which also comprises the United Nations, the European Union and the United States, announced its intention to stage a Middle East conference in the first half of this year.

    Lavrov arrived in Damascus on Saturday and attended the 36th Foreign Ministers Meeting of the Organization of Islamic Conference. He would leave for Lebanon on Monday.