Israel is ready to restart peace talks with Syria immediately and without conditions, a senior Israeli official said Wednesday after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Paris.

Telephone talks arranged by Turkish mediators between Israel and Syria were broken off last year during Israel's offensive in Gaza, closing a promising diplomatic channel towards a broader Middle East settlement.

Following talks in Paris with France's President Nicolas Sarkozy, a senior Israeli travelling with the prime minister said, "Mr. Sarkozy raised the issue of the Syrian track.

"The prime minister said he is willing to meet with the Syrian president at anytime and anywhere to move on the peace negotiations on the basis of no pre-conditions," he added.

A statement from Sarkozy's office made no specific mention of Syria, whose President Bashar al-Assad is due in Paris on Friday, but said the French and Israeli leaders had discussed ways to restart the peace process.

Earlier, in Damascus, Assad told a meeting of Arab political parties that Syria would not "put forward conditions on making peace," but warned that it had "rights that we will not renounce," according to the SANA news agency.

Last week, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said in Paris that he was ready to resume his role as mediator of three-way telephone conversations between Israeli and Syrian leaders at any time.

-AFP/NOW Lebanon