JERUSALEM, April 24 (UPI) -- Israel indicated it would be willing to withdraw from the Golan Heights in return for peace with Syria, Syrian officials said.

Syrian Expatriate Affairs Minister Buthaina Shaaban told al-Jazeera television that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert sent a message to Syrian President Bashar Assad "on the grounds of international conditions, on the grounds of the return of the Golan Heights in full to Syria."

Israeli officials neither confirmed nor denied the statement issued from Damascus, The New York Times reported, but put out a more general statement.

"Israel wants peace with Syria; we are interested in a negotiated process," a spokesman for Olmert said. "The Syrians know well our expectations and we know well our expectations.

Assad said negotiations between Israel and Syria have heated up since Turkey became involved about a year ago, The Jerusalem Post reported.

"The mediation between Damascus and Tel Aviv thoroughly increased since the end of the war in Lebanon and Hezbollah's victory," Assad said.

Golan Heights is a strategic plateau overlooking a large stretch of northern Israel. Israel has objected to previous Syrian demands for access to the shore of the Sea of Galilee, a main water source for Israel.