Newly-elected Chairman of the Palestinian National Authority Mahmoud Abbas will visit Russia in late January, a senior Russian parliament deputy said here on Thursday.

Although the Russian Foreign Ministry has yet to confirm the visit, the news was unveiled by Mikhail Margelov, chairman of the International Affairs Committee of Russia's Federation Council, the upper house of parliament in Russia.

Abbas "will come at the end of January," the Interfax news agency quoted Margelov as saying.

Margelov, who was also Russia's official observer to the January 9 Palestinian vote that elected Abbas to his new post said Abbas has a unique chance to make peace with Israel.

"He is the first one who can do without war," Margelov said.

Russia, as a member of the international quartet on the Middle East peace process -- which also comprises of the United Nations, the European Union and the United States -- jointly initiated the Road Map peace plan aimed at ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and creating a united Palestinian state.

Source: Xinhua