Clinton says two U.S. officials to hold talks in Syria

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - In a further sign of thawing U.S.-Syria relations, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Tuesday the Obama administration would this week send two senior officials to Damascus to work on bilateral ties.

"We're going to dispatch a representative of the State Department, a representative of the White House, to explore with Syria some of these bilateral issues," Clinton said, announcing another step that could help Damascus improve its standing in the West after years of tensions.

"We have no way to predict what the future with our relations concerning Syria might be," she told a news conference with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.

U.S. officials said the two emissaries would be Jeffrey Feltman, acting assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, and Dan Shapiro of the White House's National Security Council.

The Obama administration has been reviewing U.S. policy toward Syria, including whether to return an ambassador to Damascus, a move the former Bush administration had been considering in the final months in office.

Clinton had a brief conversation with Syria's foreign minister on Monday on the sidelines of an aid conference in Egypt to raise funds for Gaza.

Asked at a news conference after that meeting whether she would send an envoy to Syria soon, Clinton was noncommittal and waited until after seeing the Israeli foreign minister before confirming the decision.

Relations soured between Syria and the United States in recent years and the U.S. ambassador was pulled out of Syria after the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri.

Syria, which is on the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism, denies any involvement in Hariri's murder but Washington pointed fingers at Damascus.

Last week, Clinton said it was too early to predict a thaw in ties after Feltman met Imad Mustafa, Syria's ambassador in Washington.

But Mustafa said the meeting could herald a new chapter in relations and that Syria was open to discuss all issues.

Clinton said she did not know where the Damascus meetings would lead to and made no comment about when an ambassador would be sent back.

"We don't engage in discussions for the sake of having a conversation. There has to be a purpose to them, there has to be some perceived benefit accruing to the United States and our allies," she said.

A U.S.-Syrian rapprochement could also help clear the way for Israel and Syria to restart indirect peace talks they held under Turkish mediation last year but which were halted after Israel's December military offensive in Gaza.

Clinton said once a new government is formed in Israel, following its February 10 election, the Israeli-Syrian peace track would be on the Obama administration's agenda.

Israel has conditioned a deal with Syria on Damascus cutting its ties with the Palestinian militant group Hamas and the Lebanese Hezbollah movement.

Clinton is set to visit Turkey on Saturday, the last stop in a week-long trip to the Middle East and Europe. U.S. special envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, visited Turkey last week and discussed the Syria track.

At the Gaza conference, Clinton said the Obama administration would work toward a comprehensive peace in the region and she planned to work on "many fronts" to get there.

Three U.S. congressional delegations visited Syria last month, including Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, chair of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who consulted with Clinton before leaving for Damascus.

(Writing by Jeffrey Heller and Sue Pleming, Editing by Adam Entous)