President snubs Sharon with Syrian talks

ISRAELI President Moshe Katsav invited Syrian leader Syrian Bashar Assad to peace talks yesterday, an overture that put him at odds with prime minister Ariel Sharon.

Sharon said yesterday such talks could begin only after Syria dismantles the militant groups Israel says it controls.

Syria brushed off the offer, with one official calling it "evasive and problematic".

As Israel's ceremonial leader, Katsav, has limited political influence. But his invitation came amid a growing debate among Israeli leaders about how to respond to recent indications that Syria, one of Israel's most intractable foes, is ready to resume peace talks.

Last month, President Assad said he was ready to resume negotiations with Israel where they broke off in 2000 with Israel offering to return nearly all the Golan Heights captured in the 1967 Mideast War. Syria has repeated the offer several times since then.

Israeli officials have grown divided by the Syrian gestures. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has so far been sceptical of Syria's motives, saying Assad may be trying to placate the United States in the wake of the American war in neighbouring Iraq. He also says peace talks would have to start from scratch. Sharon said on Sunday that Israel would restart negotiations with Syria only after Syria stopped aiding militant groups that continue to attack Israel. The main Palestinian militant groups, as well as the Lebanese group Hezbollah, all operate on Syrian territory.

However, other officials, including Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom and Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have said the Syrian offer should be considered regardless of Syria's motives, an argument echoed by Katsav yesterday.

"I'm the president of Israel and I have the authority to invite foreign presidents to come to Israel," said Katsav. "I invite the president of Syria to come to Jerusalem to meet with the country's leaders and conduct serious negotiations, if that is his wish.

"There is no doubt that President Assad is in severe trouble, and his intentions aren't pure, but we must seriously examine his proposal to renew negotiations with Israel in a direct meeting and not through the media."

In Damascus, Suleiman Haddad, chairman of the foreign relations committee in the Syrian parliament, dismissed Katsav's invitation, but repeated Syria's call for restarting talks.

"Israel is fully aware that such proposals are evasive and problematic and could never lead to the hoped-for target, which is to restart negotiations from the point they had last reached," said Haddad.

Meanwhile, a Sharon confidant said Israel could begin withdrawing from parts of the West Bank and Gaza Strip in about six months.

Vice-premier Ehud Olmert's remarks marked the first time an Israeli official has mentioned a time for a possible unilateral withdrawal.

Sharon has said he will carry out the plan, including removing some Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza, if efforts to reach a peace deal fail.