Assad said in a statement carried by Syria's official news agency, his meeting with Erdogan "focused on means to activate the process of just and comprehensive peace." Assad praised the Turkish initiative and said Syria would cooperate "in whatever brings security and stability to the region."
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 told Reuters on Saturday. Asked if the Turkish effort will succeed, one of the officials said there is another party to this equation, in reference to Israel.
"The first step could be handled through low-level officials and, if it works and if there are results, one can expect that it will continue at a much higher level," Levy told public radio from the Turkish capital, AFP reported.
He added, however, that he could "not give any details on the process."
Levy’s remarks came a day after Erdogan held talks with Assad amid renewed efforts by his government to broker a relaunch of peace negotiations between Syria and Israel which have been frozen since 2000.
"The Turks really want to be involved in the process. They have helped us many times in the past and they have influence in the Muslim world and in the region," Levy said.
"They understand that only a power like the United States or a bloc like the European Union has the economic capacity to help this kind of process, but they think they can contribute because of their special status."
Israel's hawkish opposition leader, former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, blasted Olmert on Sunday for "being ready to hand over the Golan Heights even before the start of peace talks." Olmert "is behaving in an amateurish and light-headed way. This is no way to forge peace," Netanyahu said in remarks broadcast on army radio, AFP reported.
Last week, Syria has said Assad received a message from Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert through Erdogan, indicating Israel was willing to withdraw from the Golan Heights in exchange for peace with Syria.
Israel captured the Golan from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed it in 1981 in a move never recognized by the international community. Israel and Syria's last round of direct talks broke down in 2000 over the details of Israel's proposed withdrawal from the Golan, which it seized in the 1967 Middle East War.
Israel wanted to keep a small coastal strip around the Sea of Galilee to ensure its control of the lakes vital water supplies, a demand Syria rejected.
PALESTINIAN SUPPORT
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he supports Turkish mediation of Israeli-Syrian peace and would back any agreement reached between the two longtime enemies. "What Turkey is doing, or what any other country is (doing) regarding the Syrian process, we approve it," he said.
Abbas told a press conference on Sunday in Egypt after meeting with President Hosni Mubarak, a peace agreement between Israel and Syria would not harm Palestinian negotiations with the Jewish state, AP reported.
"We stand with any dialogue or agreement that our Syrian brothers reach, and we dont believe, at all, that this would compromise the Palestinian-Israeli (peace) process," Abbas added.
Before his departure to Damascus Erdogan said on Saturday Turkey's mediation was part of wider efforts to bring peace to the Middle East. Erdogan said he believes the proactive peace diplomacy that Turkey carries on will make positive contributions to peace in Iraq, between Syria and Israel or between Israel and the Palestinians.
The recent political developments suggested some progress in back-channel contacts between Syria and Israel, despite heightened tensions between them over the turmoil in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip and over a September airstrike by Israel against a suspected nuclear reactor in Syria.
Serra Ataman 