Russia to attend West Asia Quartet meet on Feb2

MOSCOW, Jan 18 (Reuters) Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will take part in a meeting of West Asia in Washington on February. 2, RIA news agency quoted Moscow's chief negotiator as saying today.

''The date has been agreed, the Russian delegation will indeed take part,'' RIA news agency quoted Sergei Yakovlev as saying.

Yakovlev said negotiators from the group, which includes the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia, will hold a preparatory meeting in Paris on January. 24.

Earlier today, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters in Berlin she had invited the Quartet negotiators to meet in Washington on February. 2.

Several European countries, including Germany and Russia, want the quartet to play a bigger role in the peace process between Israelis and Palestinians.

Rice said it would be useful for the Quartet to examine various ideas on how to get the stalled peace process back on track.

West Asia peace efforts have made little progress since 000 when a Palestinian uprising broke out months after the collapse of talks brokered by then US President Bill Clinton.

The Quartet drafted a ''road map'' for peace in 2003, calling for confidence building measures by Palestinians and Israelis but little has been done so far.

REUTERS SHB RK1945