Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev hosted Israeli counterpart Shimon Peres for talks Tuesday that were expected to focus on the Middle East. Russia aspires to host an international conference to discuss the Middle East peace process, and Medvedev and Peres were expected to discuss the issue during their talks in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi. Medvedev said he was ready to discuss with Peres both bilateral ties and regional challenges. «We can touch on both Russian-Israeli ties and difficult issues related to the Middle East settlement and other regional problems,» Medvedev said at the start of the talks. «There are more difficulties than we wish, but we still need to discuss them.» Peres told Medvedev that he had «great hopes» for the meeting.
