JERUSALEM, June 4 (Reuters) - A top deputy to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert travels to the United States this week to discuss the possibility of resuming peace talks with Syria, an aide said on Monday. Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz's Washington trip, which begins on Wednesday, follows signals that Israel and the United States could soften their stand on Syria, perhaps in a bid to separate it from regional challenges like Iran and Iraq. A Mofaz aide said that, in meetings with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other U.S. officials, he would discuss "the need to examine Syria's intentions" after Israel's war last year with Lebanon's Hezbollah, an ally of Damascus. Syrian President Bashar Assad has made peace overtures since but also hinted his country could resort to force if it deems diplomacy a dead end. Syria's bedrock demand is for the return of the Golan Heights, which Israel captured in a 1967 war. Israel's Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper said that Mofaz, a former defence minister who handles strategic ties with Washington, would seek U.S. blessing for Israel pursuing a secret channel of dialogue with Damascus. Mofaz had no comment on the report. But in separate remarks he said he would support back-channel contacts with Syria to defuse tensions simmering since the Lebanon war. Israeli media have said Syria is building up military forces near the Golan. "I am convinced that in the current situation, where we see Hezbollah rearming and a rise in Syrian readiness -- though it is more defensive than offensive -- it is prudent to conduct clarifications in secret channel," Mofaz told Israel Radio. "I don't think that any secret-channel talks, whatever their results, will lead to a deterioration (in ties)," he said. With Israeli-Palestinian talks frozen and an offensive under way in Gaza, Olmert could benefit from any positive diplomatic movement on the northern border after a commission of inquiry savaged him for mishandling the Lebanon war. But Olmert, who is scheduled to meet U.S. President George W. Bush in Washington on June 19, has demanded that Syria cease backing Hezbollah and Palestinian militants as a condition for new talks. He has also, at times, dismissed the Syrian overtures as a bid to improve ties between Damascus and the West. Israeli officials said last month that there was a growing consensus within the Israeli government that Syria was serious about resuming negotiations with the Jewish state.
