JERUSALEM - Israel on Sunday accused Damascus of being involved in terrorism and reiterated demands for a total withdrawal of Syrian troops from neighbouring Lebanon.
"The Syrians are dangerous. They have always been involved in terrorist attacks on Israel on the one hand, and on Americans in Iraq on the other," Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom told public radio.
"Syria is doing everything it can to not implement United Nations Security Council resolution 1559, which calls for a total withdrawal of its troops from Lebanon... The redeployment announced by (Syrian President Bashar) Assad is purely a cosmetic measure. It is unacceptable."
Assad announced in parliament on Saturday the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon to the eastern Bekaa valley and then to the Syrian frontier but gave no timetable for the redeployments.
"Assad did not breathe a word about Syrian secret agents who, in plainclothes, also occupy Lebanon," Shalom added before leaving for talks in the United States.
"Lebanon has the right to be free, democratic, sovereign and independent," Shalom said. "That would be the guarantee of better relations between Lebanon and Israel, even a peace treaty."
He indicated that Israel was "ready for a dialogue with Syria and has engaged in discreet contacts in this respect" but peace was impossible as long as Syria supports terrorism and protects drug trafficking in Lebanon.
Israel, the United States and France have been exerting major pressure on Syria to withdraw its troops in the wake of the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri on February 14.
"Syria does not have strong armed forces. It has a big appetite," said Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres after talks with Jordanian Foreign Minister Hani Mulki.
"Lebanon can be the next candidate for full and genuine peace. There are no border disputes. There is no reason for Lebanon not to exist as an independent and positive state in the Middle East," he added.
Earlier, former prime minister Ehud Barak said it would be impossible for Syrian troops to linger in Lebanon indefinitely.
"Syrian troops will have to leave the last metre of Lebanon," he told public radio, describing Damascus and Assad as "totally isolated".
The former head of Mossad, Israel's foreign intelligence agency, similarly called for an end to Iranian influence in Lebanon.
"International pressures will also succeed in bringing an end to the Iranian presence in Lebanon, which would be very beneficial for Israel," Ephraim Halevy told public radio.
He was alluding to Iranian support for Shiite movement Hezbollah -- deployed on the northern Lebanese border with Israel and instrumental in the Jewish state's withdrawal from southern Lebanon in May 2000.
03/06/2005 11:44 GMT