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.

"Syria insists on the principle that Israel must return all territory occupied by force and that the question of water would then be settled by other means," Al Jazeera's Marwan Bishara said.

 

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.