(updates with quotes, adds background) MOSCOW, Jan 30 (Reuters) - Russia wants the Middle East Quartet due to meet on Feb. 2 to lift a blockade on Western aid to Palestinians, Interfax news agency quoted Russian President Vladimir Putin's personal envoy as saying on Tuesday. "Russia has always opposed the blockade and we count on the quartet listening to our point of view," Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Saltanov said in an interview with the agency. The freeze on aid was introduced last year when radical group Hamas came to power in the Palestinian territories. The meeting of the Quartet, comprising the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia, has been called to try to get the Israeli-Palestinian peace process back on track. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will attend the meeting in Washington hosted by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Saltanov said Russia also wanted the Quartet to encourage Palestinians and Israelis to a direct continuous dialogue. "This means helping to turn a direct dialogue between the Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, which started shortly before the New Year, and their planned new meetings into full-scale talks," he said.
