Russia urges West Asia talks ahead of quartet

BERLIN, Feb 21 (Reuters) Russia today urged Palestinians and Israelis to hold direct talks ahead of a West Asia mediators' meeting in Berlin to discuss how to deal with a new Palestinian coalition between the Islamist Hamas and the mainstream Fatah groups.

Washington is cautious about a deal struck between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas in Mecca. It wants to continue isolating Hamas, which does not recognise Israel.

Europeans, however, see the pact as the best choice to avoid civil war and an EU official said foreign ministers from the 27-member bloc are inclined to see the Mecca agreement as ''a glass half full, rather than half empty''.

Russia wants contact with Hamas and the lifting of an aid embargo. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told government daily Rossiskaya Gazeta that Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert should open talks on the future of the Palestinians.

''We will actively support direct contacts ... that would not deal solely with the opening of one checkpoint or another checkpoint but aim to negotiate what the quartet has called the political horizon...,'' Lavrov said.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who arrived in Berlin late on Tuesday, is to report back to the quartet of Middle East mediators on a summit she hosted in Jerusalem on Monday between Abbas and Olmert.

SLOW PROGRESS The Jerusalem summit made little apparent progress in pushing the peace process forward except for a promise for the two leaders to meet again soon.

Rice wants the quartet -- comprising the United Nations, Russia, the European Union and the United States -- to play a bigger role in trying to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace moves, but she also wants to keep up pressure on Hamas.

Germany, which is hosting the Berlin meeting as European Union president, has said the quartet must take advantage of any opportunity to revive peace hopes, regardless of differences.

Abbas is due to visit Germany on Friday to meet Chancellor Angela Merkel to explain the new government deal.

The quartet has said it will withhold judgment on the coalition until its policies are known but urged any government to recognise Israel, renounce violence and abide by past Israeli-Palestinian agreements.

Officials are playing down hopes for a breakthrough at Wednesday's quartet meeting which starts at about 1700 GMT.

Hamas said it hoped Washington and the rest of the quartet would soften their position. Arab nations such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia, which helped broker the deal in Mecca, also believe the government should be given a chance.

One official said EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner would discuss ideas for a new mechanism to assist the Palestinians in the fields of governance, institution building and economic development.

REUTERS PDM KP1544