Jerusalem  - Syrian President Bashar Assad should prove he is serious about negotiating a peace deal with Israel by holding direct talks with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Jerusalem and Damascus, Israeli President Shimon Peres said Monday.

Israel Radio quoted the 84-year-old president as saying that Peres said that all Arab leaders who signed peace treaties with Israel - Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Jordan's King Hussein - had met directly with Israeli leaders, in order to expedite the processes and to shorten the gaps.

Peres' comments come amid reports that two aides of Olmert are in Turkey, apparently to start the second part of indirect talks between Israel and Syria being mediated by Ankara.

The two officials were identified by local media as Yoram Turbovitz and Shalom Turjeman, the aides who had participated in the first part of the negotiations.

The talks with Damascus began last month in "good faith," though Turkish officials had to shuttle between the representatives for the two sides who did not meet each other.

The talks in Turkey broke an eight-year hiatus on negotiations between the countries.

The last round of peace talks between Israel and Syria collapsed in January 2000, because of a dispute over the future of the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau overlooking northern Israel and whose return Syria insists on as a prerequisite for peace. (dpa)