Olmert awaiting Syrian signal about talks: senator

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told visiting U.S. lawmakers he was interested in restarting peace talks with Syria but was awaiting a signal from Damascus first, one of the lawmakers said on Wednesday.

"It is the proverbial story of chicken and egg, what comes first?" Republican Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania told reporters one day after meeting with Olmert in Jerusalem.

Olmert has for months passed messages to Syria through third parties, including U.S. lawmakers, seeking assurances peace talks would lead Damascus to sever ties with Hamas Islamists in control of the Gaza Strip, with the Hezbollah guerrilla group in Lebanon and with Iran, Israeli officials said.

Specter said his visit to the region would include talks in Damascus with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Syria took part in a U.S.-sponsored conference on Palestinian statehood after Washington agreed to allow discussion of the Golan Heights, occupied by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war and later annexed in a move not recognized internationally.

Olmert told Specter and Democratic Representative Patrick Kennedy of Rhode Island that he was "interested" in renewing peace talks, which collapsed in 2000 without resolving the fate of the Golan, but that "he is looking for a signal from Syria", according to Specter.

Specter said Syria's deputy foreign minister, Fayssal al-Mekdad, told him on the sidelines of the Annapolis conference last month that "Syria is interested in negotiations".

Kennedy said he would tell Assad that he was "mistaken" if he believed he could wait until U.S. President George W. Bush, a Republican, leaves office in January 2009 in order to get a better deal should a Democrat be elected.

"If he thinks there's going to be some ability for concessions, or less resolve ... he is going to be mistaken in that approach," Kennedy said.

Assad has set his own preconditions for revived talks with Israel: Olmert's commitment to a full withdrawal from the Golan.

Tensions flared between the neighbors when the Israeli air force carried out a strike inside Syrian territory on September 6. Some U.S. officials have linked the raid to suspicions of secret nuclear cooperation between Damascus and North Korea.

Damascus and North Korea have denied any nuclear ties.

(Reporting by Adam Entous; editing by Andrew Roche)