Through intermediaries he has assured Syria that Israel has no aggressive intentions towards its neighbour, but as recently as the beginning of July the Jewish state still staged extensive military exercises on the Golan.

The plateau was seized by Israeli troops during the 1967 Six Day War, and was later annexed unilaterally in 1981.

"This policy of hot and cold has a double aim -- to reduce the chance of war, which is perfectly justified, but also to give the impression of a relaunch of the peace process with Syria, which is all just for show," said Israeli analyst Eyal Zisser.

According to Zisser, a Syria and Lebanon expert at Tel Aviv University, "neither Israel nor Syria is in a position to take essential steps towards making peace."

Zisser believes that Olmert must announce that Israel is ready to cede the Golan, which is "out of the question because his government is so weak and because of the strength of the settlers lobby."

And Syrian President Bashar al-Assad should "make a spectacular gesture towards future normalisation, such as coming to Jerusalem," which the expert also rules out.

Nevertheless the Israeli daily Maariv on Friday said substantial progress had been made recently towards a resumption of direct negotiations, which were suspended in 2000, through contacts by intermediaries.

The newspaper said the UN envoy on the peace process, Michael Williams, had told Israel that Damascus was disposed to distancing itself from the Lebanese Shia Hezbollah militia, the Palestinian Islamists of Hamas and Iran if peace talks were to resume.

But Olmert's spokeswoman Miri Eisin was circumspect on that score. "This may be the impression Mr Williams gained from his contacts," she said.

Israel's Yediot Aharonot newspaper reported on June 8 that Olmert had secretly sent messages to Assad offering a full withdrawal from the Golan Heights in exchange for Syria abandoning its quarter-century alliance with Israeli arch-foe Iran and expelling Lebanese and Palestinian militants.

Olmert on Wednesday reportedly paid a secret visit to Jordan, where Maariv said he discussed with King Abdullah II the chances of resuming Israel-Syria talks.

At the same time the Israeli premier has also criticised Assad for wanting to negotiate only with the United States.

"Assad claims that he wants talks, but in reality what he means by that is negotiations with the United States and George W. Bush and not with Israel," Olmert told ambassadors of the European Union on Thursday.

"Syria doesn't want a war and Israel doesn't want one either, but that still doesn't mean a return to the negotiating table," he said.