http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/31/AR2008103100379_pf.html

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel’s caretaker prime minister, Ehud Olmert, wants to renew indirect talks with Syria that were suspended some weeks ago when he resigned over a corruption scandal, Israeli officials said on Friday.

Olmert will remain in office as caretaker until a new government is formed after a mid-February election. He wants to avoid a diplomatic vacuum for this period, officials added.

“The prime minister believes in the importance of continuing the process of negotiations with Syria,” said Mark Regev, a spokesman for Olmert.

A source in Olmert’s office said the Israeli leader had told Syria via European officials that he wanted to resume Turkish-mediated talks that took place earlier this year, and had “received a positive indication” from the Syrians.

Direct Israeli negotiations with Syria broke down in 2000 in a dispute over the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau Israel captured in the 1967 war and later annexed, and whose return Syria demands as part of a peace deal.

Many analysts believe the forthcoming change in the U.S. administration may give new impetus to a change in relations with Syria on the part of both Washington and its Israeli ally.

(Writing by Allyn Fisher-Ilan, Editing by Alastair Macdonald and Tim Pearce)