No talks with Israel without guarantees - Assad

DAMASCUS, July 17 (Reuters) Syria will enter peace talks with Israel only if the Jewish state commits first to a complete withdrawal from the occupied Golan Heights, President Bashar al-Assad said today.

''There must be guarantees to return the whole land. We cannot enter negotiations without knowing what they're going to be about. They must present a word of trust or something written,'' Assad said in a speech to the Syrian parliament after he was sworn in for a second 7-year term.

Syria has intensified its calls in the last two years for Israel to resume negotiations on returning the Golan in exchange for peace. The two countries are formally at war.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said last week he was ready to talk directly with Assad over the Golan, a mountainous plateau occupied by Israel in 1967 and annexed in 1981 in a move declared null by the United Nations Security Council.

Olmert has not specified how much of the Golan Israel is willing to return, but third parties have been working on solutions that would effectively result in full Israeli withdrawal from the area.

Peace talks between Israel and Syria collapsed in 2000 after disagreement on the scope of an Israeli withdrawal from the Golan.

REUTERS SKB HS1639