DAMASCUS, Nov 24: Syrian President Bashar al Assad is ready to reopen negotiations with Israel "without conditions", the visiting UN Middle East envoy said on Wednesday - an overture Israel promptly rejected as propaganda.

"President Assad had reiterated to me today that he has an outstretched hand to his Israeli counterpart, that he is willing to go to the table without conditions," Terje Roed-Larsen said after talks with the Syrian leader.

"This is very encouraging because we in the UN do not believe that there will be a lasting peace unless there is a comprehensive peace. We have to address all the tracks in the Middle East peace process," he said. But Israel rapidly dismissed the reported offer as a propaganda move designed to alleviate pressure from the United States. "This seems to be a propaganda maneuver by the Syrian side," a senior foreign ministry official said.

"The Syrians are reacting because they have their backs to the wall after the (US) sanctions and the UN vote on Lebanon. "Only if a proposition reaches us through the correct American channels then we will be ready for discussions," added the official, echoing equally cool responses to a number of similar overtures by Damascus in recent months.

Peace talks between Syria and Israel broke down in Jan 2000 over the fate of the strategic Golan Heights, which the Jewish state occupied in the 1967 war and later annexed.

Roed-Larsen met both Mr Assad and Syrian Foreign Minister Faruq al Shara in Damascus for talks on the status of the peace process in the Middle East. "We have been emphasizing the necessity of having a comprehensive perspective on the peace process," he said.

There were also "potential opportunities" on the Israeli-Palestinian track with a January election to find a successor for late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israel's planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip next year, he said. Israeli President Moshe Katsav had invited Assad to visit Jerusalem for talks in January "once Syria stops its help to terror." -AFP