Israel wants direct talks with Palestine

“We would like to move to direct dialogue immediately and I hope the Secretary-General will convince his partners in the Quartet in Moscow to ask the Palestinians to come in order to move to direct dialogue,” Shalom said.

Ban also expressed hope that the meeting in Moscow would “lead to direct negotiations between the parties.” The peace talks have been stalled since Israel attacked the Gaza strip in Operation Cast Lead,which was a military offensive carried out by the Israeli Defence Forces on the Gaza strop between December 2008 to January 2009.

On Monday,the Palestinians agreed to US-backed “indirect talks” or “proximity talks.”

On the Gaza front,Shalom stressed that dialogue with Hamas was not possible until Israeli soldier,Gilad Shalit who was captured in 2006 by the militants,was released. “We don’t have any (issues) with the Palestinians themselves. Of course with the Hamas is different,” Shalom said.

Israel,Syria speak of n-energy plans

PARIS: Israel and Syria on Tuesday each announced ambitions to develop nuclear energy. Both countries laid out their hopes at a conference on civilian nuclear energy at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

“We need this energy source because it is environmentally clean,” Israeli Infrastructure Minister Uzi Landau said. He gave no timeline for an atomic power plant. Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faysal Mekdad said his country “calls for the need to consider alternative energy,including nuclear energy” to meet growing demands.