AFP - Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman is to visit Greece, Russia and Ukraine this week to present Israel's case in the Middle East peace process after a joint cabinet meeting in Germany, his office said on Sunday.

He will make the case that "Israel has made significant steps to enable the resumption of talks with the Palestinians but the Palestinian response to these measures shows that they are not interested in negotiations," his office said.

Israel last week announced a partial moratorium on settlement construction in the occupied West Bank in a step aimed at restarting stalled peace talks after months of US pressure.

The Palestinians, who have demanded a full settlement freeze before resuming the talks, rejected the measure as insufficient.

The foreign minister, a hardliner, is to head on Monday to the German capital, where several members of the Israeli cabinet are to hold a joint meeting with Germany's government.

He is to travel on to Athens to take part in a meeting of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and hold talks with counterparts from 15 countries.

On Wednesday, Lieberman is to travel to Moscow for talks with Russian Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov and a meeting of the Israel-Russia committee set up to promote trade ties between the two nations.

On Saturday, he is to visit Kiev to meet President Viktor Yushchenko, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and other senior officials and to attend a memorial ceremony at Babi Yar, site of one of the worst massacres during the Holocaust.