Syrian MP: We won't pressure Hamas to free Shalit

Syria will lean on Hamas to find a solution to a crisis sparked by the capture of an Israeli soldier only if Israel stops its attacks on Gaza, Syrian and Palestinian politicians said on Sunday.

The government has told visiting Arab officials that it will not put pressure on Hamas' exiled leadership to help free the soldier as long as Israeli raids on civilian and military targets in Gaza continue, they told Reuters.

"The world has turned upside down for one Israeli prisoner of war, but Syria will not move unless the Israelis stop their aggression," said Suleiman Haddad, a member of parliament's Foreign Relations Committee.

"Syria might only then play a role," said Haddad, who is a member of the ruling Baath Party.

Israeli attacks, designed to force Palestinian gunmen to free the soldier, show no signs of stopping after an Israeli missile targeted the empty office of Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh on Sunday.

Israel has threatened to kill Hamas leaders unless the soldier, captured in an operation near Gaza involving Hamas' military wing a week ago, is released.

Arab diplomacy

Senior Palestinian politicians said Egypt, Qatar and Jordan, whose governments are close US allies, have contacted Syria about putting pressure on Hamas to release the soldier.

Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem made an unscheduled visit to Damascus on Saturday to discuss the Gaza crisis with President Bashar al-Assad , state media said.

"The Syrians said they cannot do anything as long as Gaza burns. Hamas cannot give up the soldier for nothing, especially so late in the game," a Palestinian politician, who declined to be named, said in Damascus.

"Israel is mainly sticking with the brute force option for now. It is too early to say what the Syrians will ask Hamas to do if Israel actually halts the Gaza attacks."

Several high-level Hamas members, including the group's most prominent leader Khaled Meshaal, live in Damascus.

Syria's secular government has resisted for years pressure by the United States, Israel's chief ally, to expel them and close the Muslim group's offices.

Israel sent a warning to Damascus to abandon support for Hamas when its planes flew over a Syrian presidential palace on Wednesday, days after the soldier was captured.

Hamas said the operation was in response to Israeli attacks on Gaza that killed civilians. Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades, its armed wing, has not said it is holding the soldier.

Israel has rejected Palestinian hints of a deal that could involve exchanging the soldier for some of the 10,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees in Israeli jails.