Israel has rejected every peace initiative offered over the last three decades, Syrian President Bashar Assad said.

In his opening speech at the Arab summit in Damascus, Assad singled out the Madrid conference and the Arab peace initiative, saying that Israel had responded to those proposals by killing Palestinians, continuing settlement activity and building the security barrier.

Assad questioned how long Arab nations can keep offering Israel a land-for-peace proposal.

In his opening speech to the summit, the Syrian leader said peace was the only way for Israel to gain security in the region, and "peace will not come except through withdrawal from occupied Arab land and giving back (Arab) rights."

"The question is: Do we leave the peace process and initiatives hostage to the whims of successive Israeli governments, or do we search for choices and substitutes that can achieve a just and comprehensive peace?" Assad asked.

"I would like to make a point with regards to Syrian interference in Lebanon. It is the contrary which is true because pressure has been exerted on Syria for over a year to interfere in Lebanon's affairs" but we have refused to do so, Assad said.

"They have their nation, their institutions, their constitution,"

Syria promised Arab leaders at an annual summit on Saturday to cooperate in ending a political crisis in Lebanon, and regional power Saudi Arabia said it saw Damascus as part of the solution.

"We in Syria are fully prepared to cooperate with Arab or non-Arab efforts ... on condition that they are based on Lebanese national consensus, the basis for stability in Lebanon," Assad said in his opening speech as summit host. He rejected criticism of Syria's conduct, saying: "On the contrary, the pressures which have been put on Syria for more than a year, and increasingly for the last several months, have been to have Syria intervene in Lebanese internal affairs."

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad Saturday slammed Israel for its military offensive in Palestinian Gaza Strip, saying the security could not be achieved by wars.

"The Israeli understanding of security can never be achieved because the Israeli occupation of the Arab territories contradicts with peace and security," al-Assad said, while delivering his speech at the opening session of the 20th Arab Summit.

"If security is not mutual, it will be just illusive and not existed," al-Assad asserted.

He, meanwhile, justified the Palestinian resistance movement, saying "resisting the occupation was legalized by all international conventions."

"If wars and occupations were the most serious issues that we had faced within the last decades, the battle for peace wasn't less important. We realize how important peace is for a long time," he added.

He announced in his speech that all Arab countries "have the intention together to achieve peace in the region, only if Israel expresses readiness for it."

As to the Lebanese political crisis, which Syria was accused of meddling, al-Assad said that the key of the solution of the Lebanese crisis "is in the hands of the Lebanese people who have their homeland, their constitution and establishments."

He added that there has been a pressure exerted on Syria for more than one year "to interfere into the internal Lebanese affairs, but we say that we are ready to cooperate with any Arab or non-Arab efforts to end the crisis there."

Speaking on the opening session of the 20th Arab Summit, Assad said Syria is "fully prepared" to cooperate with Arab or non-Arab efforts to resolve the Lebanese political crisis on condition that "they are based on the Lebanese national consensus, the basis for stability in Lebanon."

The Syrian leader, also chairman of the summit, dismissed accusations that Damascus was hindering the presidential election in its neighbor.

He said that Syria has been pressured for over a year, most frequently and extensively during the last few months, "to interfere into the internal Lebanese affairs, but we say that we are ready to cooperate with any Arab or non-Arab efforts to end the crisis there."

"The key to a solution in Lebanon is in the hands of the Lebanese themselves. They have their own country, their own institutions and their own constitution and they are capable of doing that by themselves," added Assad.

"Any other role should be supportive to them, and not an alternative to their role," Assad continued. Syria was eager to see the stability, sovereignty and independence of Lebanon, Assad stressed.