Britain urges Syria to move on Middle East peace

DAMASCUS (Reuters) - British Foreign Secretary David Miliband urged Syria and Israel on Tuesday to forge ahead with peace talks and said the Syrian-backed Palestinian group Hamas was hurting efforts to end Middle East conflict.

Miliband, whose talks in Damascus are the first by a British foreign secretary since 2000, said he supported Damascus's efforts to strike a peace deal with Israel, which could see Lebanon and other Arab states that have not signed follow.

Syria and Israel have held four rounds of indirect talks, meditated by Turkey, but they were suspended about two months ago after Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert resigned over a corruption scandal.

"We welcome the four rounds of talks that have taken place ...and we hope that they will be taken forward with new force," Miliband said after meeting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Key to the talks is the fate of the Golan Heights, which Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war and later annexed -- a move rejected by the United Nations Security Council.

The Jewish state wants Syria to weaken its alliance with Iran and cut support for Hezbollah and Hamas to make progress toward a deal. Syria has said Israel cannot set conditions.

Miliband said Syria could help solve the historic conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.

"This is a region of great conflict but also of great history. It is important that those with power in the region exercise it with great responsibility," he told a news conference in the Syrian capital.

Miliband's visit marks another step toward Syria's rehabilitation in the West since Damascus's suspected role in the 2005 assassination of Lebanese statesman Rafik al-Hariri.

"HAMAS HURTS SYRIA"

However he criticized Syria's support for Hamas, which does not recognize Israel's right to exist and opposes Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's peace talks with the Jewish state.

"I would argue that Palestinian disunity and Hamas violence hurts the cause of Syria which says it believes in comprehensive peace," Miliband said.

To the displeasure of the West, Syria hosts exiled leaders of Hamas and, together with Iran, is the main backer of the Lebanese Shi'ite movement Hezbollah, which fought a war against Israel in 2006 and has rebuilt its military capacity since.

Asked whether Syria would change its relationship with Hezbollah and Hamas, Syria's Foreign Minister Walid Moualem said: "This question could be answered when a just and comprehensive peace is achieved. We cannot jump to conclusions with the land still under occupation."

Syria regards Hezbollah as a resistance movement and urges Hamas and all parties involved to adhere to a truce between Hamas and Israel, he added.

Relations between the West and Damascus have also been strained by U.S. accusations that Syria has turned a blind eye to Islamist fighters infiltrating Iraq, but diplomatic contacts between Europe -- notably France and Britain -- and Damascus have increased in recent months, including a visit by French President Nicolas Sarkozy to Damascus.

"Over the last 18 months, I have been talking with the Syrian foreign minister about... Syria's responsibilities in the region in respect of counter-terrorism, in respect of Iraq, in respect of the Middle East peace process," Miliband told BBC radio earlier on Tuesday.

(Additional reporting by Kate Kelland in London; editing by Dominic Evans)