French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner told his parliament Tuesday that he will make sure that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Syrian President Bashar Assad will sit at the same table at next month's Mediterranean Forum. Assad has not yet accepted the invitation to attend.

"The Syrian president will be there, sitting next to, at the same table as, the Israeli president," he said, with the term "president" apparently referring to Prime Minister Olmert and not President Shimon Peres. Israeli President Peres said Tuesday that if Assad wants peace, he should visit Jerusalem.

Senior aides in the Olmert government recently returned from Turkey where they conducted two days of talks with Turkish officials who are mediating between Syria and Israel. The French Foreign Minister did not confirm or deny a report that direct discussions between Israeli and Syrian officials could take place during next month's forum.

Prime Minister Olmert previously has said that he would talk with Syria only if it were to halt its alliance with Iran and the Hizbullah terrorist party. However, after the mediated talks were announced last month, Assad immediately dispatched his defense minister to Iran, where they concluded a mutual pact.

Assad repeatedly has demanded that direct negotiations with Israel would take place only after it is clear that he will take over the strategic Golan Heights, which Prime Minister Olmert once said he would never surrender so long as he is in office.