Olmert sent message to Syria via Erdogan: Israel

PARIS (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert conveyed a message to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad through Turkey's prime minister on Sunday that Israel is serious in seeking peace with Damascus, Israeli officials said.

They said Olmert asked Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan to pass on the message when Erdogan met Assad shortly afterwards on the sidelines of a Mediterranean Union summit in Paris.

"We said that we believe that we are indeed serious and it's important to move ahead now," Olmert's spokesman Mark Regev said. The two countries announced in May that they have been holding lower-level indirect talks through Turkish mediation.

However, a Syrian government source denied that any such message had been delivered to Assad.

A Turkish official said both leaders had reaffirmed to Erdogan their desire to continue negotiations, but he did not want to go into detail on any messages.

Assad told a news conference on Saturday that more work needed to be done on confidence-building and by the two countries' technical teams before Syria could embark on direct talks.

He said he did not expect that to occur before U.S. President George W. Bush leaves office next January, because the current Washington administration was not interested in Middle East peace.

Direct negotiations over the Syrian Golan Heights, a strategic plateau captured by Israel in 1967 Middle East war, broke off in 2000.

(Reporting by Dan Williams; Writing by Samia Nakhoul; Editing by Paul Taylor)