RAMALLAH/JERUSALEM, 28 April 2008 — Israel's ambassador to Ankara raised the possibility yesterday of renewing long frozen peace negotiations with Syria under Turkish mediation.

"The first step could be handled through low-level officials and, if it works and if there are results, one can expect that it will continue at a much higher level," Gaby Levy told public radio from the Turkish capital.

He added, however, that he could "not give any details on the process." The remarks came a day after Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan held talks with Syrian President Bashar Assad amid renewed efforts by his government to broker a relaunch of peace negotiations between Syria and Israel which have been frozen since 2000.

"The Turks really want to be involved in the process. They have helped us many times in the past and they have influence in the Muslim world and in the region," Levy said.

"They understand that only a power like the United States or a bloc like the European Union has the economic capacity to help this kind of process, but they think they can contribute because of their special status." Last week, Assad revealed that Turkey had recently passed a message from Israel expressing its readiness to swap the Golan Heights for peace as it renewed the mediation efforts it launched last year.

In remarks published by the Qatari daily Al-Watan on Thursday, Assad said Erdogan "informed me of Israel's readiness to withdraw from the Golan in return for peace with Syria" and said the message had been relayed a week ago.

"What we now need is to find common ground through the Turkish mediator," Assad said, adding that any negotiations with Israel would be conducted via Ankara. Ahead of his talks with Assad, Erdogan voiced new optimism. "God willing, our proactive peace diplomacy will contribute to expected developments between Syria and Israel," he said.

Israel captured the Golan from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed it in 1981 in a move never recognized by the international community.

Syria has consistently demanded the return of the whole of the Golan right down to the shores of the Sea of Galilee - Israel's main water source - as its price for peace.

Another senior Israeli official said yesterday that peace with Syria was in Israel's interests. The daily Yediot Ahronot quoted the official as saying that negotiations could take time and required patience, and that while the Turkish channel between Israel and Syria did exist, expectations regarding the issue should be kept realistic.

"If Syria breaks away from the axis of evil, if the transfer of arms to Hezbollah is halted and if Jihad and Hamas bases are removed from Damascus - this will constitute progress, and not all this talk and decelerations," he said. According to the official, "If Israel is required to pay the price in question, namely ceding the Golan Heights, without getting anything in return - then we have gained nothing."

Meanwhile, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said yesterday that he supported Turkish mediation of Israeli-Syrian peace and would back any agreement reached between the two.

Abbas said a peace agreement between Israel and Syria would not harm Palestinian negotiations with the Jewish state, a topic he discussed with US President George W. Bush earlier in the week. The Palestinian leader said he would meet with Bush again on May 17 in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh.

— With input from agencies