Saudi Arabia to attend Mid East peace talks

By Mohamed Abdellah and Will Rasmussen

CAIRO (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's foreign minister said on Friday he would attend a conference to relaunch talks on ending the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, a move that the United States and Israel hope will bolster the chances of its success.

Saudi participation in the November 27 U.S.-hosted conference in Annapolis, Maryland could improve Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's ability to reach an agreement and help Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert sell it to Israelis by holding out the prospect of wider peace with the Arab world.

The United States welcomed the decision by Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries to attend. "This is a signal they believe this will be a serious and substantive meeting," said a State Department spokesman.

Syria, Israel's long-time foe, said on Friday the United States had agreed to put the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on the conference agenda.

"The United States has sent confirmation that it will include the Syrian-Israeli track," the Syrian news agency quoted Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem as saying. "Syria will decide whether to attend or not in light of the schedule it receives."

Syria has said it will only attend the conference if the Golan Heights, occupied by Israel since 1967, are on the agenda.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said: "The Arab peace follow-up group has decided to accept the invitation to attend the Annapolis Middle East peace conference at a ministerial level to discuss the peace process."

Asked if Saudi Arabia would attend the Annapolis talks on a ministerial level, Prince Saud nodded, but would not say if he would shake Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni's hand.

"We're not ready to be part of a theatrical performance ... we're going with seriousness and we hope we'll be met with the same seriousness ... we're not going there to shake anyone's hand or to demonstrate feelings we don't have," he said.

Prince Saud was talking at a news conference at the end of talks of foreign ministers from the Arab League to coordinate positions ahead of the Annapolis conference.

It remains unclear how far the peace conference will go in tackling the core issues -- borders, security, settlements, the status of Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees -- that have defeated previous efforts to end the conflict.

SYRIAN ATTENDANCE

Israeli and Palestinian negotiators have been struggling to hammer out a joint document before the conference that would address core issues in general terms, and Egypt said it was unclear whether a document would be ready by Tuesday.

Israeli government spokeswoman Miri Eisin welcomed the high-level participation of Saudi Arabia, which does not have diplomatic ties with the Jewish state, and said Israel was also in favor of Syrian participation.

But she said Annapolis would still be primarily about Israel and the Palestinians.