Mr Erdogan has taken to blaming the Syrian president, Bashar Assad, for the renewed violence.
Syria's leader, Bashar Assad, may rather wait for a new American president before entering into direct negotiation.
Bashar Assad won 97.29% of the vote in a referendum that confirmed him as Syria 's new president.
As for Mr Arafat, he is due in Damascus next week for talks with President Bashar Assad of Syria.
Both Mr Olmert and Bashar Assad, the Syrian president, have called repeatedly for talks over the past couple of years.
Iran is the chief regional ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad and is considered close to Iraq's Shiite Muslim-dominated government.
President Bashar Assad not only struggles to contain unrest at home, but he may also be losing support in the region.
ECONOMIST: As the turmoil persists, more Syrians are leaving or hiding
President Bashar Assad's troops regained control of the Wadi Sayeh district in the center of Homs early Thursday morning, the Observatory said.
Maybe all parties--including the supposedly Westward-leaning dynastic ruler of Syria, Bashar Assad--soon will accept a modus vivendi allowing war-weary peoples to live better.
President Bashar Assad took a tough line against his opponents in the interview with London's Sunday Times, dialing back earlier hints of flexibility about talks.
Mr Erdogan frequently met Syria's president, Bashar Assad, and his wife.
ECONOMIST: Turkish foreign policy: Problems with the neighbours | The
Influential Arab leaders, including Syria's president, Bashar Assad, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and the wealthy emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad al-Khalifa, flew in to calm nerves.
Tony Blair sent a senior foreign-policy adviser, Sir Nigel Sheinwald, to Syria to find out whether President Bashar Assad could be tempted into playing a more pro-Western role.
And Turkey has turned against Bashar Assad's regime in Syria, though Mr Erdogan has not explicitly told the Syrian president to go, nor has he downgraded relations with Damascus.
In an interview with Britain's Sky News over the weekend, US President Barack Obama was asked whether he is planning to accept Syrian President Bashar Assad's invitation to visit Damascus.
Syrian President Bashar Assad this week told Italy's La Repubblica newspaper that he and outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert were just a stone's throw away from a peace deal last year.
"The president of the United States said that if Bashar Assad used chemical weapons that it would be a game changer, that it would cross a red line, " the Arizona senator said.
Kofi Annan, the joint UN-Arab League envoy and sponsor of a six-point peace plan, flew to Damascus to plead with President Bashar Assad to uphold the ceasefire ostensibly in place since April.
The Americans and Europeans want Russia to support a managed transition, in which President Bashar Assad would leave power but some of the underlying structures linked to his rule would remain in place.
Despite assurances from President Bashar Assad, it has so far not allowed direct questioning of at least five officials sought by the chief investigator, Detlev Mehlis, a German prosecutor experienced in terrorism cases.
Also on Saturday, Syria and Iran accused the US of double standards over its decision to provide aid to rebels fighting to topple President Bashar Assad and said the move would only prolong the conflict.
U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-California, who met in Damascus for more than two hours Sunday with Bashar Assad, said the Syrian president assured him he would expel any suspected Iraqi war criminals found in his country.
CNN: Lieberman urges United States to 'win the peace' in Iraq
The now irreversible breach between Mr Erdogan and Syria's president, Bashar Assad, may have revived Mr Assad's friendship with the PKK. Growing discord between Iraq's Kurds in Erbil and the Shia-led central government in Baghdad is another worry.
Obama's advisers made the unlikely argument that if Syrian leader Bashar Assad survives the popular demonstrations calling for his overthrow, he will feel compelled to distance his regime from Iran because his Sunni-majority population has been critical of his alliance with the Shi'ite mullocracy.
Erdogan was once a close ally of the Syrian president Bashar al Assad.
Coming up, President Obama said it again today: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad must go.
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"I believe the destiny of Bashar al-Assad should be decided by the Syrians themselves, " he said.
The presence of Syrian troops showed Iraqi leaders' "firm co-operation" with President Bashar al-Assad, it added.
BBC: Map showing Akashat in Iraq and al-Waleed border crossing
Their goal will be to persuade President Bashar al-Assad to stop the killing, the official said.
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