(Amends word in bullet point, body copy unchanged)
* Current regional quartet undermined by Iran-Saudi tensions
* Erdogan offers options at meeting with Iran's Ahmadinejad
ISTANBUL, Oct 16 (Reuters) - Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip
Erdogan said on Tuesday he had suggested to Iranian President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad three-way talks including Egypt on the Syria
crisis, given the apparent Saudi objection to Iranian
involvement in a current quartet.
Egypt formed that group with Iran, Turkey and Saudi Arabia,
but the latter stayed away from a meeting hosted by Cairo last
month. Riyadh's no-show was seen by diplomats as a reaction to
the presence of Shi'ite Muslim Iran, the major rival of the
Sunni Muslim kingdom for regional power and influence.
Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi subsequently cancelled a
meeting of the four regional powers on Sept. 26 because of the
absence of Erdogan from the U.N. General Assembly, according to
Cairo's presidential spokesman.
Speaking to reporters on his return to Ankara from Baku,
where he held talks with Ahmadinejad at an Economic Cooperation
Organisation summit, Erdogan offered various options for
countries to get involved in future Syria talks.
"We proposed a three-way system here. This system could be a
trio of Turkey-Egypt-Iran," the state-run Anatolian news agency
reported Erdogan as saying. "A second system could by
Turkey-Russia-Iran. A third system could be Turkey-Egypt-Saudi
Arabia."
Turkey, Egypt and Saudi Arabia have publicly supported the
Syrian rebels while Iran has been the staunchest regional ally
of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, complicating any consensual
approach among the four to defusing Syria's civil war.
Tensions between Ankara, which has also sheltered Syrian
rebels, and Damascus have been simmering of late after a shell
fired by Syrian forces killed five civilians in a Turkish border
town. Ankara has since retaliated repeatedly for further
shelling from the Syrian side, an area of heavy fighting between
Syrian government and rebel forces.
Ankara has banned all Syrian aircraft from its air space and
carried out inspections of planes travelling to Syria to prevent
military equipment being sent to government forces there.
Erdogan on Tuesday also voiced support for moves by Lakhdar
Brahimi, the U.N.-Arab League mediator in the Syria conflict, to
secure a ceasefire in Syria after 19 months of bloodshed.
"Brahimi has taken a step. Let's at least secure a ceasefire
during Eid al-Adha," Erdogan said. The Islamic feast holiday
begins around Oct. 25.
Diplomatic sources have told Reuters that Brahimi is
attempting to persuade the Syrian government and rebels to
accept a ceasefire and allow U.N. monitors into the country to
oversee it.
Brahimi, who replaced Kofi Annan after the former U.N.
secretary-general resigned in frustration in August, has been
travelling around the Middle East trying to persuade key
regional powers to accept his plan.
But diplomatic sources familiar with Brahimi's proposals
said on condition of anonymity that neither the Assad government
nor the fractious opposition had shown any interest in halting
the conflict, which has killed an estimated 30,000 people.
Brahimi's plan is similar to one that Annan tried
unsuccessfully to implement, U.N. diplomats said on Tuesday.
(Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by Mark Heinrich)