Syria says will help Turk PM on mediation with Israel

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan speaks during visit at St. George Orthodox church in the city of Kardzali, some 250 km (155 miles) south-east of Sofia, March 28, 2008. Turkey will mediate in peace talks in the Middle East, Erdogan said on Saturday before heading to Syria for a one-day visit. (REUTERS/Oleg Popov)

DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Syria will cooperate with Turkey in its mediation to relaunch peace talks between the Damascus government and Israel but the Jewish state has also to make an effort towards a deal, Syrian officials said Saturday.

President Bashar al Assad said after meeting Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan in the Syrian capital that "Syria was ready to cooperate with Turkey in any effort that brings security and stability to the region."

"The meeting focused on ways to activate a just and comprehensive peace and the president praised Turkey for the efforts in this regard," the state news agency said.

Syrian officials said that the meeting focused on attempts by Turkey to help Syria and Israel relaunch negotiations that collapsed in 2000 over the scope of a proposed Israeli withdrawal from the Golan heights, a water-rich plateau overlooking Damascus.

Asked if the Turkish effort will succeed, one of the officials said: "There is another party to this equation," in reference to Israel.

The meeting between Erdogan and Assad was attended by Ahmet Davutoglu, Erdogan's influential chief foreign policy adviser, and Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem.

Erdogan said Syria and Israel had asked Turkey for mediation work to be launched and that such efforts would start at a low level and move up the chain if successful.

"As Turkey, we will make whatever efforts we can on this issue. In this respect, there is a request from Syria and in the same way a request from Israel," he told a news conference upon returning to Turkey.

Erdogan earlier opened a Syrian-Turkish business forum in Damascus and said that "misunderstandings" between the countries have opened way for economic and political cooperation.

The Damascus government has been rebuilding relations with Ankara after they were strained by Damascus support for Turkish separatists a decade ago.

Erdogan said Turkey plans to remove minefields along the border with Syria that were planted to stop the movement of Kurdish rebels into Syria.

Turkey, which is a NATO member, also has good ties with Israel. Ankara has been trying to boost its diplomatic weight and expand the market for its booming exports, with $800 million of exports to Syria alone.

COMPLEXITIES

Turkey has been relaying messages between Syria and Israel for months, diplomats in the Syrian capital said. Assad told Qatar's al-Watan newspaper last week that Turkish mediation started last April and had brought "positive results."

Diplomats expected Erdogan to face an uphill task in bringing the two sides to formal negotiations, with Syria already saying it does not see the United States interested in overseeing the talks, a role Washington played in the 1990s.

The United States accused Syria this week of building a covert nuclear facility that it said was destroyed by an Israeli attack in September.

"The next logical step should be proxy talks between Syrian and Israeli officials, but it is complex. Israel wants a price from Syria and the current U.S. administration is not interested in seeing Syria enjoy a peace deal," one of the diplomats said.

Syrian officials say Erdogan called Assad last week to tell him Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had told Turkey that Israel was willing to give back all of Syria's Golan Heights in return for peace with Syria.

Assad told al-Watan that Syria was ready to negotiate with Israel through Turkey to "find common ground" for peace, but any direct talks must wait until a new U.S. president was elected.

Olmert, who has been on holiday in the Golan Heights this month, told the daily Yedioth Ahronoth last week, in answer to a question on pulling out of the Golan, that he was working to achieve a "significant move" for peace with Syria.

The issue of how much of the Golan Israel would give back scuppered a decade of talks between Syria and Israel in 2000. Israel occupied the Golan Heights in 1967 and annexed them in 1981 in a move rejected by the U.N. Security Council.

(Additional reporting by Emma Ross-Thomas in Istanbul; Editing by Peter Millership)