Damascus - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad called into question the seriousness of Israel's efforts to make peace in the Middle East on Sunday, saying the country must prove its intentions by action.

Speaking at a gathering of Arab parliamentarians in Damascus, al- Assad said that Israel's current participation in indirect talks with Syria that are being mediated by Turkey are "just a tactic, not a strategic decision for peace."

Syria and Israel have recently held four rounds of talks through Turkish intermediaries, without significant progress.

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.

Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was scheduled to meet Sunday afternoon in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik with the foreign ministers of Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

The meeting is expected to discuss the latest developments in the Iranian nuclear programme and security in the Gulf.

Javier Solana, the European Union's foreign policy and security chief, said Saturday evening that he would join the meeting.

Both Rice and Solana are in Sharm el-Sheikh for an international meeting on Middle East peace.

Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt - An international meeting on Middle East peace opened Sunday in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh amid hopes that a Barack Obama administration in the United States will accord adequate attention to settling Arab-Israeli differences.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon were present at the meeting of the so-called Middle East Quartet.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni were to brief participants on negotiations over 12 months that failed to reach a final status agreement, or a framework for one.