Turkish PM off to Syria for four-way Mideast talks

Erdogan will be the guest of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during his visit to the Syrian capital of Damascus, and participate in a quartet summit in which developments in the Middle East will be discussed.

Assad will host the meeting as the current president of the Arab League. President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, which holds the rotating EU presidency, and Amir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani of Qatar, which holds the presidency of the Gulf Cooperation Council, will also attend the meeting.

Turkey has been mediating indirect peace talks between Israel and Syria. The fourth round of talks ended in July. Israel and Syria launched peace talks in May but have not yet agreed to hold face-to-face negotiations.