DAMASCUS, Dec 9: Presidents Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and Syria’s Bashar al-Assad held talks here Sunday on the escalating violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

State radio said Mubarak flew in from Cairo and went straight into talks, after being greeted at the airport by Assad and vice presidents Abdel Halim Khaddam and Zuheir Masharka.

Egypt and Syria insist on an Israeli withdrawal from Arab lands occupied in the 1967 Middle East war as the key to peace in the region, but they differ on the ongoing intifada, the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation.

Damascus supports a continuation of the intifada, whereas Cairo has called for the Palestinians and Israel to consolidate a ceasefire to allow for a resumption of peace negotiations.

“Some parties expect the government of (Israeli Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon to follow the path of peace,” Syria’s government daily Tishrin said on Sunday, pointing to the differences.

“But this is impossible. All the signs are that this government wants to set the whole region ablaze, not just the Palestinian territories,” it charged.

“The Arabs should act quickly to forge an effective solidarity in the face of the danger,” Tishrin warned.

In Cairo, Mubarak’s office said his visit to Damascus was part of the “inter-Arab coordination in the face of the deteriorating situation in the Palestinian territories”.

The visit was decided upon after an emergency meeting of Arab League foreign ministers, due to take place Sunday in Doha at the request of Syria, was postponed.

Mubarak last week sent his foreign minister, Ahmed Maher, to Israel and the Palestinian territories in a bid to defuse tensions between the two sides, but Maher said he returned empty-handed.

Putin, Schroeder: Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder on Sunday called for pressure on both Israelis and Palestinians to stop the violence in the region from spiralling out of control.

After meeting for informal talks for nearly two hours at Schroeder’s residence in this northern German city, the chancellor said the two leaders were deeply concerned about the escalating tensions in the Middle East.

Schroeder told reporters that he and Putin agreed that “pressure must be put on both sides” to contribute to calming the crisis, which threatened to worsen again Sunday as Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Israel might step up its military operations following a new Palestinian suicide bombing.—AFP