In another sign that the stalled Israeli-Syrian peace negotiations may soon be back on track, a senior adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Mr Ehud Barak has said that the talks can restart at the point they broke off more than three years ago - a Syrian precondition for getting back to the table.
However, Mr Danny Yatom, a senior security adviser to Mr Barak, conceded that the sides differed over what exactly had been agreed on before the talks broke down in February 1996.
That problem, he suggested, could be circumvented by restarting the talks and having both sides bring their version to the table. "The main problem is interpretation by the two sides," Mr Yatom told Israel's Channel Two television on Thursday night.
The Syrians have insisted that the government of the late prime minister Yitzhak Rabin agreed to a full withdrawal from the Golan Heights, the strategic mountain range captured by Israel in the 1967 war. With Mr Barak's hardline predecessor, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, having refused to accept the Syrian position, talks between the countries remained frozen throughout his three-year term.
While Mr Barak has not made any public commitment about Israeli willingness to withdraw from the Golan Heights, he has said that any agreement with Syria would entail "painful compromises".
Meanwhile, in an attempt to allay Palestinian fears that they will be abandoned in favour of the Israeli-Syrian track, Mr Barak will meet Palestinian leader Mr Yasser Arafat late tonight. The Israeli leader will try to convince Mr Arafat to accept changes to the Wye Plantation land-for-security deal signed in October.