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Israel sets conditions for Syrian role at conference

Israel does not oppose the participation of Syria and other Arab states at an international conference on Palestinian statehood, provided they support the US-led peace process, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Monday.

Olmert said the countries that were invited to the US-sponsored conference would be those that accepted what he called "international parameters" and the long-stalled "road map" peace plan, which Syria has long opposed.

It remained unclear if Syria would agree to attend the conference if conditions were imposed on participants.

Any US invitation to Syria could be further complicated by an Israeli airstrike on Sept. 6 on Syria, which some US officials have linked to apparent Israeli suspicions of secret nuclear cooperation between Damascus and North Korea.

Syrian officials said on Monday that the Israeli raid had all but finished off the chance of resuming peace talks.

Washington signaled on Sunday it would invite Syria and other members of an Arab League panel to the conference, penciled in for mid-to-late November, but suggested Damascus must renounce violence and seek an end to the conflict.

Speaking to a parliamentary committee in a closed-door session on Monday, Olmert emphasized to Israeli lawmakers that Arab participation hinged on certain criteria.

"We have no reason to raise opposition. As far as I am concerned, anyone who takes part in the meeting, in accordance with the criteria, represents to me a positive development," Olmert was quoted by a parliamentary official as saying.

"The United States will decide on the participants -- those who have clear intentions to support peace with Israel," Olmert said. "The countries that will be invited will be those that accept the international parameters for peace and the road map."

In a separate meeting with Israeli Arab lawmakers, Olmert said Syria would be invited to the conference and did not speak of conditions, one of the legislators present said.

Israeli and Palestinian officials said inviting Syria to the conference would be a way to test its willingness to break with Palestinian militants including Hamas, which seized the Gaza Strip in June and has rejected the US-sponsored conference.

"It would legitimize the entire effort" to bolster Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and isolate Hamas, a senior Israeli official said.

In its latest move to strengthen Abbas, Israel posted on Monday the names of 87 Palestinian prisoners it plans to free from its jails, most of them from Abbas's secular Fatah faction.

Under pressure from allies not to rush into any peace deals, Olmert said his talks with Abbas aimed at a "joint declaration that relates to core questions that will be the basis for negotiations for the establishment of a Palestinian state."

"It is a not an agreement. It doesn't resemble an agreement," the prime minister said, adding that "all the parties agree there will be no diversion from the `road map,' even in the future."

Meanwhile, Israel's attorney general has instructed the police to open a criminal investigation against Olmert concerning his purchase of an apartment in a historic Jerusalem house in 2004, the Justice Ministry said on Monday.

The investigation focuses on suspicions that Olmert had received a "significant discount" on the purchase of the apartment from a development company in return for accelerating the process of obtaining special building permits from Jerusalem's city hall necessary for refurbishing the entire building.

Olmert, a former mayor of Jerusalem, bought the apartment in Cremieux Street, in the city's upscale German Colony neighborhood, before he became prime minister, but while he was already serving in government.

He is said to have paid US$1.2 million, a sum which fell more than US$300,000 short of the market value, assessments reported in the Israeli news media showed.

In a statement, the prime minister's office denied any wrongdoing and called the investigation "superfluous."
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