Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt - The one-day meeting of the Middle East Quartet ended in Sharm el-Sheikh on Sunday with announced plans to stick to the Annapolis process, maintain Palestinian-Israeli negotiations and to hold a meeting on the Middle East peace process in Moscow next spring.

The quartet, which is comprised of the EU, the UN, Russia and the US issued a two-and-half- page statement following their meeting with Palestinian Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni that emphasized that direct bilateral Israeli-Palestinian negotiations should be continued and that an agreement will only be announced when all issues are agreed on.

Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt - Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni plans to privately meet with three Arab foreign ministers on the sidelines of an international summit on the Middle East peace process on Sunday, informed sources told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed al- Nahyan, Bahraini Foreign Minister Khaled al-Mubarak and Moroccan Foreign Minister Tayib al-Fassi al-Fehrani have agreed to the meeting in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, where the so-called Middle East Quartet was meeting Sunday, the source said.

The ministers asked that the meeting not be announced, the source said.

Sharm el-Sheikh/Jerusalem - Israeli and Palestinian negotiators have made serious and intensive progress toward formulating a peace treaty, and the world community should not intervene in the talks, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said Sunday.

In a statement summing up Livni's remarks to the sponsors of the peace process at a summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, Livni was quoted as saying that to date, the Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams had held hundreds of meetings and the sides believed the elements, the principles and the guiding principles for an agreement were in place.

Tel Aviv - Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni warned US president-elect Barack Obama Thursday against holding a dialogue with Iran, saying Tehran could interpret such overtures as "weakness."

But she added she was not concerned that a US administration under Obama would greatly chance its attitude toward Israel.

Jerusalem - Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni congratulated US president-elect Barack Obama Wednesday on his victory in the US presidential election, saying it was a "badge of honour for American democracy."

"Israel looks forward to a continuation of the close strategic cooperation with the new administration, with the new president and with the US Congress, and to the continuation of the strengthening of the special and unshakable relations between the two countries," she said in a statement.

Tel Aviv - Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni warned Tuesday against increased international pressure on Israel, saying the country would not take "shortcuts" in the peace process with the Palestinians.

"The world must support the process that is being conducted and not expect Israel to carry out shortcuts which would hurt its ability to safeguard its needs," Livni said ahead of a visit by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and of Sunday's meeting of international peace mediators in Egypt.