Syrian Information Minister Mahdi Dakhlullah said on Saturday that Syria is ready to restart peace talks with arch-foe Israel.  

"If Israel nods, Syria would reopen negotiations with it five minutes later," Dakhlullah told Xinhua in an interview.

"But the problem is that Israel did not agree and it ignored the Syrian call," he said.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has made several overtures on restarting peace talks with the Jewish state in recent months, but Israel gave the cold shoulder.

Syrian-Israeli peace talks foundered in 2000 over the fate of the strategic Golan Heights occupied by the Jewish state since 1967.

"Syria is ready to talk, because it contributes to peace in the region. And peace is in Syria's interests," the minister said.

He said that US President George W. Bush said in his State of the Union address that the Middle East peace process would be the priority of his second term.

"This is a positive progress, and we hope it could be put into effect," Dakhlullah said.

On the prospect of the Palestinian issue after the presidential election, he said, "Syria supports the political activities of the Palestinian people, which can be successful if the Palestinians can keep national unity."

"National unity is the most powerful drive for the Palestinians," he said.

Dakhlullah said that there are 500,000 Palestinian refugees living in Syria, who have different political views and represent various factions in Palestine.

"If the existence of Palestinian factions in Syria made Israel nervous, the best solution is to let them return to their homeland, which is also a permanent solution," he said.

On the Iraqi file, he reasserted Syria's support for Iraq's stability and called for an end to foreign occupation and the restoration of Iraq's full sovereignty.

On Lebanese-Syrian ties, he said Syria would not interfere in Lebanon's political system, but would continue to help maintain its stability.

(Xinhua News Agency February 6, 2005)