On Lord Levy's visit to Damascus

Lord Michael Levy held talks on Wednesday in Damascus centered on the Middle East peace process and means of resuming negotiations between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa. Diplomatic sources in Damascus said Levy, who conveyed a message to President al-Assad from British Prime Minister Tony Blair, was due to visit Lebanon on Thursday.

Lord Levy had in November 1999 conveyed a message from Blair to President Hafez al-Assad just one week before resuming peace negotiations between Syria and Israel following four years of suspended negotiations between the two sides.

Damascus has criticized the statement made by Barak following his meeting with the Egyptian prime minister in Cairo in which he said that he refuses to give any prior political commitment to Syria concerning withdrawal from the Golan Heights to the June 4, 1967 border lines.