Annapolis puts Golan Heights talks on agenda

US:Negotiations between Israel and Syria over the Golan Heights could move centre-stage in a follow-up to this week's Annapolis peace conference, expected to take place in Moscow next spring.

Ahmed Salkini, official spokesman for the Syrian embassy in Washington, said although no direct talks on the issue started at Annapolis, Damascus had made a diplomatic step forward by thrusting the Golan issue into the international spotlight.

"We have taken a step by re-igniting the issue of the occupied Golan Heights. Syria's goal of a comprehensive Middle East peace agreement was raised by major international participants at the conference. The door is now open for further international meetings to discuss Golan," said Mr Salkini.

Citing US, Russian, Arab and European officials, the Washington Post reported yesterday that Russia and the US had started planning a possible Moscow conference at which Syria's dispute with Israel could be discussed. The last peace effort, conducted by the Clinton administration in 2000, came close to settling control of the Golan Heights, seized by Israel in 1967.

"Our belief is that if the two parties can make progress on the Israeli-Palestinian track, that that could possibly lead to openings along other tracks.

"We are going to try to encourage parties on both sides - the Arab side as well as the Israeli side - to take advantage of any potential openings that they see there," said state department spokesman Sean McCormack.

While cameras were turned off during the Annapolis meeting, secretary of state Condoleezza Rice compared the plight of Palestinians today to her own experience as an African-American growing up in Alabama under Jim Crow, according to the Washington Post. Dr Rice noted a local church was bombed by white separatists, killing four girls, including a classmate of hers.

"Like the Israelis, I know what it is like to go to sleep at night, not knowing if you will be bombed, of being afraid to be in your own neighbourhood, of being afraid to go to your church," she said.

But, she added, as a black child in the south being told she could not use certain water fountains or eat in certain restaurants, she also understood the feelings and emotions of the Palestinians.

"I know what it is like to hear that you cannot go on a road or through a checkpoint because you are Palestinian. I understand the feeling of humiliation and powerlessness," she said.