Israel accuses Syria and Iran of arming and supporting Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas who fired nearly 4,000 rockets at Israel in the 34-day war that ended last week. However, during the war, Israel went to great lengths to keep Syria out of the conflict, apparently to avoid opening another front or closing future peace options.

After the war, Syrian President Bashar Assad signaled he is moving closer to Iran. He delivered a hardline speech in praise of Hezbollah and warned that future Arab generations might succeed with force where peace talks have failed so far - a reference to the Golan Heights, the plateau Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast War.

Inspecting rocket damage in northern Israel on Monday, Olmert said Syria is not a partner for peace at the moment.

"When Syria stops support for terror, when it stops giving missiles to terror organizations, then we will be happy to negotiate with them,'' Olmert said.

"We are not going into any adventure when terror is on their side,'' Olmert said. "We're not going into any negotiations until basic steps are taken which can be the basis for any negotiations.''

The three main U.S. allies in the Arab world - Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia - have been pushing for a revival of negotiations because they're worried the Lebanon war has given a boost to Iran. A top Arab League official has said the Arab countries are putting together a peace plan to present to the U.N. Security Council next month.

It's not clear whether the United States would support a wider peace effort following the Lebanon war.

Israeli leaders appear divided over whether Syria could somehow be lured into the moderate Arab camp with the promise of peace talks and getting back the Golan. Last week, Defense Minister Amir Peretz became the first senior Israeli official to propose renewing contacts with Syria.

On Monday, Public Security Minister Avi Dichter also said Israel should resume the negotiations that broke down in 2000. Asked by Israel Army Radio whether Israel should surrender the territory in exchange for a peace deal, Dichter referred to treaties with Egypt and Jordan in which Israel handed over all war-won land.

"What we did with Egypt and Jordan is also legitimate in this case,'' Dichter said. Asked whether that meant Israel should withdraw to its international border with Syria, he said: "Yes.''

However, Olmert told his Cabinet in a closed-door meeting Sunday that Israel is in no hurry to resume peace talks. Vice Premier Shimon Peres said Monday that Israel had other things on its mind right now.

"I think that at the moment, we can't take on too much,'' Peres told Israel Radio. "We have the burden of Lebanon and we have the negotiations with the Palestinians. I don't think a country like ours can deal with so many issues at a time.''

Peres said he believes it's unlikely Assad is even contemplating a return to negotiations.

"The Syrians, if they are serious (about peace talks), should come and say 'We are interested in holding negotiations,''' Peres said. "I don't see Assad doing this.''

An army spokeswoman confirmed that Israeli soldiers and officers from the Shin Bet internal security service had seized the member of parliament in Ram Allah.

Almost all of Hamas's leaders in the West Bank are now in Israeli custody.

The crackdown on the group's officials began after the capture of an Israeli soldier by gunmen in the Gaza Strip on June 25. The military wing of Hamas is one of three groups believed to be behind the operation.

Al-Ramahi, a trained doctor, is the fourth highest ranking member of the parliament and is responsible for many administrative and procedural matters.

Dozens of officials seized

Early on Saturday, troops arrested Nasser Shaer, the deputy prime minister, at a home where he had been hiding in Ram Allah. He was the most senior Hamas official to be detained yet.

Five cabinet ministers and more than two dozen MPs are being held by Israel. Four other members of the cabinet have been released.

Mushir Masri, a Hamas MP in Gaza, called the arrest "cheap Israeli extortion that runs against all international laws".

He told The Associated Press news agency: "We hold Israel responsible for all the serious consequences if it insists on kidnapping lawmakers and ministers".

Ramon said on Friday he intended to resign after Israel's attorney general announced plans to indict him on an indecent assault charge.

The departure of Ramon was the latest setback for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who has been under intense criticism over his government's handling of the war in Lebanon.

Ramon has been a key Olmert ally and one of the biggest and most influential supporters of a plan to unilaterally withdraw from much of the West Bank by 2010.

It is also the latest scandal to hit the Olmert government.

Jerusalem property deal

Israel's state comptroller has confirmed it is looking into a Jerusalem property deal in which Olmert allegedly bought an apartment in 2004 for $1.2 million US.

The comptroller's office told Reuters it is still investigating the case. The prime minister's office has reserved comment, pending an official approach on the matter by the comptroller.

"The significance is clear: Politically, Olmert is a dead man walking," political commentator Ari Shavit wrote last week in the left-leaning Haaretz newspaper.

But Reuters quoted other political analysts who said it was unlikely any of Olmert's coalition partners were interested in bringing down the government after only three months in power. Israel's next scheduled election is four years away.

Other scandals facing the Olmert government:

* President Moshe Katsav has been accused by a former employee of being coerced to have sex with him. Katsav has denied the woman's allegations, which Reuters said police are investigating.
* Tzahi Hanegbi of Kadima, the chairman of parliament's influential defence and foreign affairs committee, was informed earlier this week he would be charged with fraud, bribery and perjury.
* And Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz, chief of staff of Israel's armed forces, has acknowledged selling off his stock portfolio just hours after Hezbollah gunmen kidnapped two Israeli soldiers July 12, triggering the five-week Lebanon war. While regulatory authorities have said he did nothing illegal, Reuters said many Israelis are questioning why cutting his own financial losses was on Halutz's mind at such a time.

Each equipment was stamped "made in Britain," the report said.

However, British Foreign Office officials said early indications seemed to suggest that the night-vision equipment found by the Israelis was not part of the batch sold in 2003 to Iran. However, thorough checks were being made to compare serial numbers on the equipment found in the Hezbollah bunkers with those on the ones exported legitimately to Iran.

Night-vision equipment of military specification required an export license, and the investigation will look into whether any British company might have breached export regulations, the report cited an unnamed official from Department of Trade and Industry assaying.

According to the newspaper, the 250 night-vision systems were given a special export license in 2003 because they were intended to be used by Iran to combat heroin and opium smuggling across the Iran-Afghanistan border.

Although there is what amounts to an arms embargo against Iran, aimed principally at stopping the export of equipment that could benefit Tehran's suspected nuclear weapons program, the request for night-vision equipment was approved in recognition of the counter-narcotics work.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a Shiite and Hezbollah backer, stood at the prime minister's side and said they spoke with one voice.

In Jerusalem, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he would name a panel to investigate government and military conduct of the conflict, in the face of criticism that authorities prosecuted a messy war with an unclear outcome and waffled over key decisions.

A day after Israel conducted a pre-dawn commando raid deep into the Bekaa Valley, prompting UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to declare the Israelis in violation of the Security Council cease-fire resolution, there were no reports of fresh incidents and the truce held into a seventh day.

Residents in the mountains east of Beirut, however, reported continued Israeli overflights. And the Lebanese army issued a statement accusing Israel of not abiding by the cease-fire because of the airspace violations, which were a prelude the Bekaa Valley commando raid.

Defence Minister Elias Murr's strong warning to rogue rocket teams indicated concern that Syrian-backed Palestinian militants might try to restart the fighting by drawing retaliation from Israel. He insisted Hezbollah would hold its fire.

"We consider that when the resistance (Hezbollah) is committed not to fire rockets, then any rocket that is fired from the Lebanese territory would be considered collaboration with Israel to provide a pretext (for Israel) to strike," he said.

On Saturday, Murr had threatened to stop the deployment of the army in south Lebanon, a key demand of the UN cease-fire resolution, after the Israeli helicopter-borne commando raid near the town of Boudai in the foothills of the Mount Lebanon range on the west side of the Bekaa Valley, a Hezbollah stronghold.

Israel said it launched the raid to interdict Iranian weapons shipments for Hezbollah as they crossed into the country from Syria. One Israeli officer was killed and two soldiers were wounded, one seriously.

Townspeople in Boudai said the Israel raid began at 3am and that 300 residents grabbed their guns and fought at the side of 15 Hezbollah guerrillas for 90 minutes before the commandos retreated and were flown back to Israel. Residents said there were no casualties on the Lebanese side.

Lebanon has started deploying 15,000 soldiers to the south, putting a government force in the region for the first time in four decades, as part of the cease-fire requirements.

They are to be joined by an equal force of international peacekeepers, but wrangling among countries expected to send troops has so far delayed assembly of the force. The flare-up underlined concern about the fragility of the cease-fire and the UN pleaded for nations to send troops.

Further complicating efforts to form an international force, Olmert yesterday said Israel would not accept the participation of peacekeepers from countries that don't have diplomatic relations with the Jewish state.

Indonesia, Malaysia and Bangladesh - Muslim countries that do not have diplomatic ties with Israel - are among the only countries to have offered front-line troops for the expanded force, which is to police the border.

Murr, meanwhile, did not return to his threat to halt the Lebanese deployment when he spoke yesterday, apparently satisfied by Annan's declaration that Israel had violated the cease-fire and warned against future such actions.