Israel seized the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Middle East War and later annexed it [AFP]

Before his departure from Ankara on Saturday, Erdogan said that improving ties with regional countries had allowed Turkey to step up efforts to facilitate peace in the Middle East.
 
"The atmosphere of trust makes it necessary for Turkey to act as a mediator," he said Ankara's Esenboga airport.

Turkey is said to have secured assurances that Israel is willing to return the Golan Heights to Syria which it has occupied for more than 40 years.
 
Israel seized the strategically important plateau from Syria in the 1967 Middle East War, and annexed it in 1981.

Opponents warn a deal with Israel could increase tensions between Syria and Iran.
 
Fresh tensions
 
The indirect contact comes despite recent tensions, in part stemming from an Israeli air raid last September on a Syrian military facility.

Damascus has denied claims that Israel hit a Syrian nuclear installation developed using North Korean technology.

'Ready for peace'
 
Earlier this week, Buthaina Shaaban, Syria's minister for expatriate affairs, had confirmed that the Israeli talks offer was put forward through Erdogan.
 
"The Turkish prime minister has conveyed to Syrian president Bashar al-Assad that Ehud Olmert is ready for peace with Syria on the basis of international resolutions and the return of the whole Golan Heights to Syria," Shaaban said on Wednesday.

Peace negotiations between Syria and Israel collapsed in 2000 over disagreement of the extent Israel would pull out of the Golan Heights.
 
International attempts to persuade the two countries to resume talks faltered after the two sides attached conditions to a return to the negotiating table.

Golan demands
 
Syria has demanded Israel commit to a full withdrawal from the Golan Heights.
 
Israel says it wants to keep a small strip of land along the Sea of Galilee to maintain control of the water supplies. It also wants Syria to end support for Lebanon's Hezbollah and the Palestinian group Hamas.
 
Al-Assad had acknowledged last Sunday that talks through a third party were under way, telling a closed meeting of the ruling Baath party that an Israeli commitment to withdraw fully from the Golan had to be a basis for talks.

However, Israel would face difficulties convincing the public to accept any deal with Syria.

A recent opinion poll published in the Yediot Aharonot newspaper said that more than two-thirds of Israelis opposed a complete withdrawal from the Golan Heights and 51 per cent rejected a partial withdrawal.

The survey also reported that 74 per cent of Israelis "did not believe Assad was serious" about a peace deal.

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