Israel rejects Syrian offer to renew talks
The Syrian offer, conveyed by Maher, the borther of President Bashar al-Assad, would have involved mutual confidence-building steps alongside a renewal of negotiations, Maariv reported.
But the newspaper said Sharon felt at the time that Syria had made the proposal only as a tactical move to curry favor with Washington ahead of an expected U.S. war in Iraq.
In Damascus, a Syrian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman declined comment on the report.
Israeli-Syrian peace talks broke down in January 2000 over the future of the occupied Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Middle East War.
Last week, U.S. Congressman Tom Lantos, visiting Israel after meeting the Syrian president, told Israeli television that Assad "asked me to convey to the Israeli prime minister his desire to talk to Israel about various outstanding issues."
Sharon replied then that he was prepared to hold talks with Assad without pre-condition, Israeli government sources said.
The Maariv report appeared as U.S. Assistant Secretary of State William Burns was preparing the ground for the most concerted international peace drive in the region since the U.S.-brokered Camp David talks collapsed in mid-2000.
On Sunday, ahead of a regional visit by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, Syria said that Washington must push Israel to give up the land it seized in 1967, including the West Bank and Gaza.
