Damascus, 03/06/2002 (Agence Europe) - Javier Solana was in Damascus on Monday where he met the Syrian president Bachar-el-Assad to discuss ways of relaunching the Middle East peace process. The EU's High Representative for common foreign and security policy said that in their meeting they had discussed the situation in the region and had assessed the potential of carrying out an initiative to mobilise the political process. Asked whether Syria would be involved in the international peace conference mooted by the US, Solana said that any peace initiative would have to be global. Syria has hinted on several occasions that it will not take part in the conference to be organised to end the violence between Israelis and Palestinians.