MADRID (Reuters) - The head of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation said on Wednesday that Russia had decided to quit the international agency just as its member states were preparing to vote on Russia's suspension over its invasion of Ukraine.

       Zurab Pololikashvili, the secretary general of the Madrid-based UNWTO, said earlier he hoped members would vote to suspend Russia.

       A UNWTO spokesman said that although "Russia announced its withdrawal, the assembly continues because a suspension has immediate effects".

       It follows a vote by the U.N. General Assembly earlier this month to suspend Russia from the U.N. Human Rights Council - an inter-governmental body within the assembly - over reports of "gross and systematic violations and abuses of human rights" in Ukraine, prompting Moscow to announce it was quitting it.

       (Reporting by Corina Pons, writing by Andrei Khalip)