Israel offers talks to Palestinians and Syria

Israel has offered peace talks to the Palestinians and Syria if they move against anti-Israel violence, Israel's Foreign Minister says, endorsing the United States-backed "road map" peace plan again after a year of going it alone.

Silvan Shalom's speech at an annual conference in Herzliya, north of Tel Aviv, marked the first time an Israeli official actively endorsed the "road map" since Prime Minister Ariel Sharon put forward his plan to pull Israeli settlements out of the Gaza Strip and a small part of the West Bank.

Shalom called for reconvening the summit held in June last year at the Jordanian resort of Aqaba, where US President George W. Bush launched the "road map", which leads through stages to creation of a Palestinian state.

Officials in Sharon's office said the PM disagreed with his Foreign Minister and rejected the idea of reconvening the Aqaba summit.

While insisting that the Palestinians must stop violence, Shalom also said that the initial requirements of the "road map" must be implemented simultaneously.