(Adds Lavrov's quote in para 6)
LONDON, June 27 (RIA Novosti) - Tony Blair will resign as British prime minister Wednesday after ten years in office, making way for his former finance chief Gordon Brown, and is expected to take on a new role as a Mideast envoy.
The premier, whose time in office has been clouded by the U.K.'s involvement in the unpopular Iraq war, held his last Prime Minister's Questions session in parliament and will formally tender his resignation to Queen Elizabeth at 1:05 p.m. local time (12:05 GMT).
Blair is also expected to quit as MP for the Sedgefield constituency in northern England if he secures an appointment as Middle East envoy from the "Quartet" regulating the Palestinian-Israeli conflict - the European Union, Russia, the United States and the United Nations.
The prime minister held talks Tuesday evening with Russian President Vladmir Putin in a bid to calm Moscow's concerns over the appointment, given his controversial role in the region, in particular his refusal to condemn Israel's bombing of Lebanon last summer as well as his role in the U.S.-led Iraq invasion.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, currently on a visit to Israel, told journalists that the Quartet's decision would be announced in the near future.
"The decision will be announced any minute. The Quartet has finished drawing up a mandate for the new envoy, which will be based on the need to do everything possible to satisfy the real needs of Palestinians, under the Quartet's control," the Russian diplomat said at a joint news conference with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank.
Former Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown, 56, will hold talks with the queen after the outgoing prime minister at Buckingham Palace, at which time the monarch will ask him to form a government.
