Israel plans more Syria security talks

JERUSALEM, Oct. 31 (UPI) -- Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert plans to resume indirect security talks with Syria soon, angering right-wing lawmakers, a senior government official says.

In response to the report, Likud Member of Knesset Yuval Steinitz criticized Olmert as having delivered a "simultaneous blow to the principles of democracy and the crucial interests of the state of Israel."

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister and Kadima Chairwoman Tzipi Livni called for an increase of international pressure on Syria, Haaretz reported.

Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller, who had held a two-hour meeting with Syrian President Bashar Assad a few days earlier in Damascus, said Assad expressed a desire to continue talks with Israel.

Moeller also said Assad had told him he was willing to conduct direct negotiations with Israel while U.S.President George W. Bush is still in office, if Assad were to receive a satisfactory response from Israel to the "six-point document" he gave the Turkish prime minister in September.