Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said on Saturday that he had held "positive" talks with his US counterpart Condoleezza Rice despite renewed criticism from Washington of his country's policies.

Muallem told the Dubai-based satellite channel Al-Arabiya that the meeting in New York on Friday was "positive and marked the start of an upcoming dialogue."

He said the US secretary of state had "voiced optimism about regional developments," particularly the resolution of the longstanding deadlock between pro- and anti-Damascus factions in Syria's smaller neighbour Lebanon.

He said she also expressed hope that indirect contacts between Syria and Israel on resuming peace talks would continue and said Washington was "prepared to have an input" in them.

Syria has held four rounds of preliminary contacts with Israel through Turkish mediators since May. A fifth round was postponed at Israeli request earlier this month.

Muallem reiterated Syria's longstanding position that "a US role will be required" if and when the two sides eventually relaunch direct negotiations broken off eight years ago.

In Damascus, the official SANA news agency said that the meeting with Rice had been held at her request.

It was her second with Muallem since November 2007 when they held talks on the sidelines of a conference on Iraq. The two first met in May last year during another gathering on Iraq.

Their latest talks came despite a renewed tirade against Syria by US President George W. Bush in his farewell address to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday.

"A few nations -- regimes like Syria and Iran -- continue to sponsor terror," Bush charged.

Washington has also accused Damascus of failing to give adequate cooperation to the International Atomic Energy Agency in its investigation into a mystery facility bombed by Israel in September last year that US officials have charged was a nuclear plant.

To The Article