US lawmaker pleads with Rice to engage Syria

WASHINGTON, Feb 16 (Reuters) A veteran Republican congressman pleaded today for the United States to talk to Syria about easing the violence in Iraq and proposed former Secretary of State George Shultz as an envoy.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who regards the 86-year-old Shultz as a mentor, said she would consider the idea but repeated the Bush administration view that such talks would not be fruitful.

''I plead with you, I beg with you, if we're going to ask a young man or woman in our military to go to Iraq three different times, it's not asking too much for the administration to send somebody to engage with ... the Syrians,'' US Rep. Frank Wolf of Virginia told Rice at a hearing.

''I know it's unorthodox but knowing of your high respect for former Secretary Shultz, let former Secretary Shultz go out as your envoy,'' added Wolf, who is the top Republican on the House subcommittee that oversees the US foreign aid budget.

''We should engage diplomatically and if it doesn't succeed, let the world see that Assad didn't engage,'' he said, referring to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Washington, which has diplomatic relations with Syria, has accused Damascus of fomenting the insurgency that rages in Iraq nearly four years after the March 2003 US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

While it has held talks with top Syrian officials about Iraq in the past, the administration has resisted pressure from lawmakers and the Iraq Study Group blue chip panel that it conduct a new effort.

Rice said there was no evidence the Syrians were trying to change their behavior.

''We don't have an ideological problem with talking to Syria. It's just a question of whether the (talk) is actually going to produce anything,'' she said.

Reuters KR VP0010