Palestinian National Authority (PNA) leader Mahmoud Abbas arrived in Moscow on Sunday for a three-day official visit.

The agenda for the visit will be focused on talks with Russian officials on the prospects of putting the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians back on track, Palestinian Ambassador to Russia Hairi al-Oridi was quoted by the Interfax news agency assaying.

"We hope that the international community, including of course Russia, will convince Israel to fully abandon the use of force and take steps to implement the road map plan, which will eventually lead to a truce," the ambassador said.

According to another media report, Israel Sunday expressed willingness to hand over control of several West Bank towns to the Palestinians within days, which further fueled hopes of a genuine breakthrough in the Middle East peace process.

The announcement came ahead of a breakthrough summit between Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon which was reported to have been slated for Feb. 8.

The Russian government is one of the four sponsors of the roadmap peace plan, which has made next to no progress since its launch in June 2003 with Israel accusing the Palestinians of failing to meet its obligations to stop violence, and the Palestinians in turn pointing to Israel's continued violation of the agreement's terms.

(Xinhua News Agency January 31, 2005)