Sharon rejected US proposal to resume talks with Syria

Young Palestinian stone throwers run away from an Israeli army vehicle during minor clashes in the Balata refugee camp in the West Bank city of Nablus Monday. Yasser Arafat's re-election in polls planned for early next year looks almost certain, despite the veteran Xalestinian leader's isolation by both Israel and the Americans. PHOTO: AFP

Sharon told the Haaretz daily that senior White House en~oy Elliot Abrams had made the sggestion during a meeting in Rome last November but let the matter drop when it was met with a cool response.

"It was immediately taken off the agenda and they're not raising it any more," Sharon said.

"He (Abrams) wanted to talk with me then on the Syrian issue," said Sharon. "He spokm about what the Syrians were trying to do, that they would enter into negotiations with Israel."

All attempts to reach a peace deal between the two countries have foundered over the return of the Golan Heights which was captured from Syria by Israel during the 1967 Middle East War and annexed 14 years later.

Syrian Pre{ident Bashar al-Assad was repor|ed last week to have said that he is ready to resume negotiations with Israel if Sharon would similarly oblige.

Sharon has argued however that Assad is merely trying to placate the Americans and that he had to show real intent by shutting down the offices of hardline Palestinian factions based in Damascus.

The Israeli army's chief of staff, General Moshe Yaalon, caused a stir last month when he said that Israel could hand back the Golan, the first time that such a senior officer had accepted the possibility of a total withdrawal from the strategic plateau, a{ demanded by Assad's regime.