14 August 2004	Saturday	27 Jamadi-us-Saani 1425

JERUSALEM, Aug 13: Israel could hand back the Golan Heights to Syria as part of an eventual peace deal, armed forces chief General Moshe Yaalon said in an interview published on Friday.

"From the point of view of military requirements we could reach an agreement with Syria by giving up the Golan," Yaalon told the Yediot Aharonot daily. "The army could defend Israel's borders wherever they are, if the political authority makes the decision" to withdraw from the Golan, he said.

A senior official close to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon made it clear however that such a decision was not imminent. "We will only negotiate with Syria if it first gives up its support for terrorist acts against Israel and makes no preconditions about the nature of a final agreement," he said.

Israel accuses Syria of supporting radical Palestinian groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah, whose militia clash sporadically with Israeli troops over a disputed border region.

Mr Sharon himself has frequently voiced opposition to giving up the Golan Heights, which Israel annexed in 1981. In the last talks between the two sides which broke down in Jan 2000, Israel's then Labour government offered to give up the territory captured in 1967 except for a strip on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, which Syria would not accept. -AFP