PARIS: The leaders of France, Qatar, Turkey and Syria will meet on Thursday at the request of Damascus to examine ways to move towards peace in the Middle East, an official close to President Nicolas Sarkozy said.
Sarkozy is due to travel to Syria on Wednesday on an official visit aimed at reinforcing ties with Damascus after Syria helped reach a deal to end a political crisis in neighbouring Lebanon, a former French protectorate.
"(Sarkozy) will end this visit with a four-way summit," the official told reporters.
In addition to Sarkozy and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the meeting will bring together Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, whose country is mediating indirect peace talks between Syria and Israel, and Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, who brokered the political deal in Lebanon.
The men would also be representing various regional organisations as France holds the rotating six-month presidency of the European Union, Syria holds the presidency of the Arab League and Qatar currently heads the Gulf Cooperation Council.
"These four heads of state and government will meet at the end of the president's stay to discuss what I would call the regional issues ... Peace in the Middle East, whether in Lebanon or between Israel and Syria," the official said.
He added that France was interested in a Turkish security plan for the Black Sea region, where Russian and Georgian troops have clashed.
The four-way meeting will likely be brief. The schedule for Sarkozy's visit showed that it was expected to last one hour and that a news conference would be held afterwards.
