The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Jerusalem

Israel and Syria were set to hold a new round of indirect peace talks next week, officials said on Wednesday, three weeks after the two neighbours announced the Turkish-mediated negotiations.

"We will stand by our declaration to have ongoing talks. I expect their resumption shortly," Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's spokesman Mark Regev told AFP.

A government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Olmert's top aides Shalom Turgeman and Yoram Turbowitz would return to Turkey next week to continue the talks.

Both officials, nevertheless, declined to disclose any further details on the nature of the talks, which were simultaneously announced by Israel, Syria and Turkey on May 21, after an eight-year freeze.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said earlier this month that direct peace talks with Israel were unlikely before 2009, and added that they also depended on the fate of Olmert, who has been dogged by calls for his resignation over a graft scandal.