TEL AVIV, Dec 31: Israel disclosed plans on Wednesday to expand Jewish settlement in the Golan Heights captured from Syria in the 1967 war, infuriating Damascus not long after President Bashar al Assad proposed reopening peace talks.

Agriculture Minister Yisrael Katz, running the right-wing Israeli cabinet's settlement committee, said the plan aimed to underline that the Golan "is an integral part of Israel" before any negotiations for its return demanded by Syria.

A senior official close to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon denied the plan was a "political message" to rebuff Assad or prejudge dialogue on the Golan, insisting "agricultural and tourist development" was the goal.

But Damascus saw a manoeuvre to make Israel's control over the strategic plateau irreversible. "Israel is deluded that it can achieve something by relying on power and occupation," Deputy Foreign Minister Isa Daweesh said.

"The new Israeli steps...block the way to any inclination or initiative to push matters in the direction of achieving a just and comprehensive peace in the region," the official Syrian Arab News Agency quoted a government spokesman as saying.

Israel's main daily Yedioth Ahronoth said the 62 million dollar plan would double the Golan's 18,000 settler population within three years. But an agriculture ministry spokesman said "only" 900 families would be settled - a roughly one-third increase.

Whatever the numbers, Israel's opposition left bemoaned the plan as another ill-timed blow to flagging regional peace efforts, saying it would encourage Syria to keep supporting Palestinian militants fighting Israel.

A senior Israeli official said the point of the Golan plan was to develop the thinly populated highland, which Israel annexed in 1981 in a move condemned internationally and which is now given over mainly to agriculture and nature preserves.

Some 20,000 Druze also inhabit the Golan as holdovers from Syrian rule. Israel and Syria have no diplomatic relations and remain in a state of war, but the Golan has been quiet for decades.

FRENCH APPEAL: France on Wednesday urged Israel to immediately abandon its plans to extend settlements in the Golan Heights, saying such a move could compromise the Middle East peace process.