WRAP Erdogan meets FM at airport; President Assad; photo op

(26 Apr 2008) SHOTLIST

1. Pull out to red carpet as plane taxis up to stairs
2. Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan disembarks with officials, meets Syrian Foreign Minister, Walid al-Muallem, zoom in
3. Erdogan walking with Syrian President Bashar Assad and others, shaking hands, zoom in
4. Mid of Erdogan, pull out to Erdogan and Assad, zoom in to Assad, pull out to wide
5. Mid of Syrian Foreign Minister, Walid al-Muallem, pan to Edogan and Assad
6. Photographers and camera crews

STORYLINE

Turkey's prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived in the Syrian capital Damascus on Saturday for talks with Syria's leader on prospects for peace between Syria and Israel, after signs of progress in Turkish mediation.

The Turkish party was greeted at the airport by Syria's foreign minister Walid al-Muallem.

Later he met President Bashar Assad.

Erdogan's visit was originally to open a Syrian-Turkish business forum, but his visit has gained significance with the Syrian President's announcement that he had received an Israeli offer of a full withdrawal from the Golan Heights, in return for a peace treaty.

Assad has said that Erdogan passed on the message that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was ready to return the Golan and that he was seeking looking to discuss the details with Erdogan.

Turkey has close ties with both Israel and Syria, as well as with the US.

Erdogan did not mention the Golan issue before his departure, only that Turkey was trying to get the leaders of Syria and Israel together, according to Turkey's state-run Anatolia news agency.

The recent developments suggested some progress in contacts between Syria and Israel, despite heightened tensions between them over the turmoil in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip and over a September airstrike by Israel what the US has claimed was a nuclear reactor in Syria.

Israel and Syria's last round of direct talks broke down in 2000 over the details of Israel's proposed withdrawal from the Golan, which it seized in the 1967 Middle East War.

Israel wanted to keep a small coastal strip around the Sea of Galilee to ensure control of the lake's vital water supplies, a demand Syria rejected.

Syria's relations with the Bush administration, which leaves office in January 2009, have been poor in the last three years because of disputes over policy in Lebanon, Iraq and the Palestinians.

Washington claimed this week that North Korea was secretly assisting work on a nuclear reactor in Syria, adding that the facility destroyed by Israel in a September airstrike was not intended for "peaceful purposes."

Syria has rejected the reports, insisting the target was an unused military facility.

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