World Bulletin / News Desk

Israel Prime Minister Ehud Olmert intends to resume indirect, Turkish-mediated negotiations with Syria soon, according to a senior government official, Israeli newspaper reported.

The official told Haarezt that talks between the Prime Minister’s Bureau and the bureau of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan would be held next week to try to coordinate an agreed-on date for what would be the fifth round of indirect talks with the Syrians.

Olmert met Tuesday with Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller, who had held a two-hour meeting with Syrian President Bashar Assad a few days earlier in Damascus.

According to the report, Moeller also said Assad had told him he was willing to conduct direct negotiations with Israel while President George W. Bush is still in office, if Assad were to receive a satisfactory response from Israel to the “six-point document” he gave the Turkish prime minister in September.

Haaretz has said that “the document contains three points delaing with the marking of the border of the Golan Heights and three points dealing with security issues in the framework of a peace treaty between the two countries.”

Olmert reportedly told Moeller that his intentions toward the Syrians were also serious and noted that he had said as much in an interview he gave recently to Yediot Ahronoth. Olmert also reportedly told Moeller that Israel would answer the Syrians’ questions at the coming meeting.

The six-point document was first made public at a summit in Damascus at the beginning of September, attended by the president of France, the Turkish premier and the emir of Qatar, where Assad announced that he had given the document to Ankara, and that it included Syria’s demands regarding an agreement with Israel. Assad is believed to view Israeli agreement to the document, which Israel received via Turkey, as a condition for a move to direct talks.