(AFP) – Sep 18, 2007

JERUSALEM (AFP) — The vast majority of Israelis support the apparent air strike on Syria, a poll showed on Tuesday, as North Korea denied helping Damascus to build a nuclear facility alleged to have been the target.

Asked if they supported the reported raid nearly two weeks ago -- over which Israel has kept silent and which foreign press reports have said was aimed at a nuclear target -- 78 percent of Israelis polled said "yes."

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's dwindling ratings also rose 10 percentage points on the back of this support to 35 percent, according to the survey.

The figures continued a trend that has seen his ratings recover from single digits where they wallowed for months because of last year's inconclusive war in Lebanon and a string of corruption scandals implicating the government.

Continuing the official wall of silence, President Shimon Peres on Tuesday refused to comment on the September 6 incident after which Syria said its air defences had fired at Israeli warplanes deep inside its territory.

But days after the Israeli military intelligence chief claimed in allusion to the strike that Israel had regained its "deterrent capability," Peres said that tensions between the two neighbours officially still at war had eased.

"The nervousness in the relations between Syria and ourselves is over," said Israel's elder statesman. "Just as the prime minister said, which is sincere and serious... we are ready to negotiate directly with the Syrians for peace."

In an interview with Russian-language media late on Monday, Olmert was reported to have said that he had "great respect" for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and that "Israel is ready for direct negotiations with Syria, without preconditions."

Peace talks between the two neighbours collapsed seven years ago over disagreements over the Golan Heights, the strategic plateau that Israel captured from Damascus in 1967 and annexed in 1981.

Syria has filed an official complaint with the United Nations over the mysterious attack, but has likewise remained tight-lipped over the details.

The only quasi confirmation has come from anonymous defence officials in Israel's main ally the United States, who have said that a "quick" strike was carried out to send a message to Damascus not to continue supporting Hezbollah, with which Israel fought a war last year.

With scant official information available, most of the speculation over the strike has been in foreign media reports, which first said the raid was aimed at weapons financed by Israel's arch-enemy Iran.

But over the past week, more and more reports have alleged that the strike was aimed at either a nuclear facility or nuclear material provided by North Korea.

Syrian official media have blasted such reports as "lies" that could be used as a pretext for attacking Damascus, and on Tuesday the North Korean foreign minister also rejected the allegations.

"Recently some US media including the New York Times have been spreading allegations that we are secretly helping Syria with its nuclear programme. Such reports are groundless and misleading," a ministry spokesman said.

"We, as a responsible nuclear power, already declared in October 2006 that we will never allow the transfer of nuclear materials, and we have been sticking to this declaration," the spokesman said in a statement published by the official Korean Central News Agency.

"Allegations about secret nuclear cooperation are nothing but a clumsy plot set up again by vicious forces who do not want progress in North Korea-US relations and six-party talks," he said.

The United States has long accused North Korea, which carried out a nuclear weapons test in October 2006, of weapons proliferation. American officials have also charged Syria with bankrolling terrorism groups in the Middle East.

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has said his country would have a "real problem" if Syria and North Korea were collaborating on a nuclear programme.

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