United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Syria and other Arab League members are going to be invited to the upcoming Middle East peace summit.

Known being the tense relations between Syria and Israel, many expected the Israeli government to object to Rice’s proposal, but Premier Ehud Olmert’s spokeswoman said Monday that Israel has “no problem” with Syrian participation at the November conference.

“The meeting is being hosted by the Americans. They are the ones who are issuing the invitations and can invite whomever they wish. We have no problems,” Olmert's spokeswoman, Miri Eisin said.

On Sunday, Rice said the US intends to invite members of the Arab League Follow-Up Committee because the peace initiative promoted in 2002 represents the backbone of current discussions between Palestinians and Israel.

The peace plan elaborated by Saudi Arabia and promoted by other Arab League states, offers full recognition of the Jewish state in exchange for a complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from territories occupied four decades ago and a viable solution to the Palestinian refugee problem.

At a meeting of the Quartet on the Middle East held in New York, Rice said the peace initiative should continue to be the core of discussions at the forthcoming conference.

“We have a lot of work to do before we get to the question of who will accept and who will come, but it will be an only natural outcome of all that has happened that the members of the Follow-Up Committee would hopefully be there,” she said during a press conference Sunday.

Israeli Premier Olmert said the summit is “not a peace conference, but an international meeting aimed at giving international support to the process between us and the Palestinians.”

Regarding the participants, Olmert said aside from himself and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, other leaders from Arab countries “who support a peace solution with Israel and accept the principles of the international community and the road map” will attend the high-profile meeting.

The summit will bring at the same table Syrian and Israeli officials, who didn’t meet face to face for more than seven years. Tension between the two countries rose significantly over the past years and especially after Syria allegedly supported Palestinian militant groups.

Relations deteriorated significantly after Israeli war planes launched an airstrike in Syria earlier this month. The target hasn’t been revealed so far, media speculating that an alleged nuclear facility built with the help of North Korean specialists was struck.

Several Arab states said they will shun the conference if a conclusive solution can’t be expected, referring to the ongoing talks between Abbas and Olmert that seemed to have reached a deadlock.

And that is because Palestinians want a binding agreement which would be “polished” during future meetings and eventually turn into a peace deal. But Olmert said a “declaration that reflects intentions and an understanding” would be more suitable at the moment.