"The agenda will focus primarily on a just and long-lasting settlement of the crisis situations in the Middle East," the source said, adding that efforts toward the resumption of Israeli-Syrian negotiation are also high on the agenda.
Syria is considering a resumption of talks with Israel in a bid to revitalize the stalled Mideast peace process. Damascus blamed the impasse on Israel's refusal to negotiate.
Russia, one of the Quartet countries mediating the Middle East conflict, has consistently taken a softer line than Western powers on the Islamic group Hamas, which leads the Palestinian government, and the Lebanon-based pro-Syrian Islamic militant group Hezbollah, both of which are considered terrorist organizations by Israel and most Western countries.
President Vladimir Putin and his Syrian counterpart will also discuss bilateral cooperation, regional security and ways to normalize of the situation in Iraq, the source said.
The agenda's economic topics include stepping up cooperation in the energy sector, specifically Russia's role in the construction of a Pan Arabic oil pipeline and a gas processing plant, and boosting trade, which has tripled in the last four years from $152.7 million in 2001 to $465.6 million in 2005, hitting $360 million in the first nine months of 2006, he said.
