MOSCOW (AFP) - Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas arrives here Sunday on the latest stop of a diplomatic tour aimed at keeping Middle East peace efforts on track as Israel threatens a major offensive against Gaza. Abbas is due at around 1500 GMT to Moscow, where the government plans to host an international conference on the Middle East peace process next year. He meets Monday for the first time with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev amid a backdrop of resurgent unrest in the Middle East. "We will look particularly at the situation in the Middle East to ensure the negotiation process continues and to avoid an Israeli-Palestinian and an inter-Palestinian confrontation," the Kremlin said in a statement. The talks between Abbas and Medvedev will particularly look at Russia's role in the peace process, said Afif Safieh, the Palestinian ambassador to Moscow. Moscow plans to host international talks on the peace process in 2009, but has not set a specific date. "I think that because of elections in Israel (on Feb 10) this conference, which aims to restore the credibility to the peace conference and to reactivate it, will not take place until May or June," Palestinian ambassador Safieh predicted. Abbas arrives here from Chechnya, where he met with Chechen president Ramzan Kadyrov.