MOSCOW, Oct 5: Russia engaged in Middle Eastern telephone diplomacy on Tuesday as it tried to bring Israel and the Palestinians back to the negotiating table as violence raged on in the troubled region.

A Moscow statement said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov telephoned both Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom to hear each man's views on the latest events.

Lavrov condemned Israel for using "disproportionate force" while underlining the Jewish state's right to self defense. The statement said he also urged Arafat to rein in the use of terror in the Palestinians' attempts to win their right to an independent state.

More than 80 people, most of them Palestinians, have died in the Gaza Strip since Israel launched a massive assault there last week. Moscow has been an official co-sponsor of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process for more than a decade.

It sided strongly with the Palestinian side in the Soviet era, but has slowly drifted toward Israel's position since launching its own "anti-terror" campaign in Chechnya. -AFP