Israel and Syria say they are conducting indirect peace talks with Turkish mediation.
Senior officials from both sides are currently in Turkey but senior Israeli officials will not confirm if there have been direct contacts between the two delegations.
Syrian officials said a month ago they were cooperating with Turkey on efforts to relaunch negotiations with Israel after an eight-year hiatus.
Israel and Syria last held peace talks in the US in 2000, but they collapsed after the two sides failed to reach an agreement on the fate of the Golan Heights, Syrian territory that Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war.
A dispute over control of the shore of the Sea of Galilee, which the Golan Heights overlook, was widely seen as the main stumbling block.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who also relaunched peace talks with the Palestinians six months ago, has said he is willing to discuss handing back the Golan to Syria.
In return he wants Damascus to sever ties with Iran and movements hostile to Israel, notably Hamas and Hezbollah.
Last September, Israeli aircraft bombed what US officials said was a suspected North Korean-built nuclear facility in Syria, an attack that drew no apparent retaliation from Damascus.
Analysts, including former senior Israeli officials, believe there is little prospect of a peace between Israel and Syria without a shift in US policy toward Damascus, possibly once President George W Bush steps down in January.
