Golan restrictions lifted

Canadian PM Jean Chretien visited the Sea of Galilee

The Israeli government has lifted all restrictions on developments on the occupied Golan Heights following the deadlock in peace talks on returning the strategic area to Syria.

A senior adviser to Prime Minister Ehud Barak, Yossi Kucik, told a settlers' council that all building programmes which had been suspended due to the peace talks could now proceed.

These few metres of Syrian territory that the Barak government refuses to give back will cost it dear

Al-Baath newspaper

These include the construction of roads, sewage systems and the expansion of facilities at two resorts.

On Tuesday it emerged that Israel has approved work on 200 homes in the largest settlement, Katzrin.

The move sparked an angry reaction from Damascus and the Arab League.

It was also condemned by the Israeli peace group, Peace Now, who described the timing of the move as deliberate, cynical and wasteful at a time when, it said, Israel had already taken a strategic decision to leave the Golan.

Peace broker

Some 17,000 Israeli settlers live on the Golan.

Syria has accused Washington of giving up its role as broker of the peace process and said Israel had turned its back on peace.

Damascus is demanding a full Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights to the line in force before Israel captured them in 1967.

This would give Syria control of the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee, the main source of fresh water for Israel.

But Israel wants to retain total control of the lake.

It also says the international border is a few hundred metres east of the shore.

This area had been captured in 1951 and Israel says it is sovereign territory.

Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien visited the Sea of Galilee on Tueday, and backed the Israeli position.

"I can understand the need for Israel to keep the only lake they've got," he said.

"They are right to want to keep it."

Land and honour

"These few metres of Syrian territory that the Barak Government refuses to give back will cost it dear, and the government will pay the price for that and the [demise] of the peace process," the Syrian governing party newspaper al-Baath said on Thursday.

An editorial in the paper said it was a "question of land, honour, sovereignty and right, as laid down in UN resolutions".

But the newspaper added that the Syrian-Israeli peace track "still has life and the door has not closed entirely".

The Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and US President Bill Clinton met in Washington this week to discuss the deadlocked peace process.

Both Israel and Washington have publicly expressed a lack of optimism over a peace deal with Syria.

But they said the door was still open for Damascus.