President elect Shimon Peres urged Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to work on the release of two Israeli soldiers kidnapped by Hizbullah last July and a third captured by Palestinian gunmen near the Gaza Strip a month earlier.
Lavrov said he would meet the families of Ehud Goldwasser, Eldad Regev and Gilad Shalit on Wednesday, and vowed that Moscow would carry on with efforts to bring about the soldiers' release. (Roee Nahmias)