CAIRO, November 24 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Syrian Foreign Minister Faruq al-Shara roundly rejected U.S. pressure to shut down the Damascus office of Islamic Jihad, saying the Palestinian resistance group did not use it as a base for planning attacks, in an interview to appear this week.

"The Islamic Jihad office in Damascus is uniquely an information bureau and those who work there have no links to military activities or planning operations," Shara told the Egyptian weekly Al-Osbou newspaper.

In the interview, a copy of which was obtained by Agence France-Presse (AFP), Shara underlined that "those who are on Syrian territory, far from the terrain, cannot plan operations that take place in Palestinian territory."

The U.S. State Department said Tuesday, November 19, it would keep up pressure on Syria to close down the office, a few days after the resistance group claimed responsibility for an ambush in the West Bank town of al-Khalil (Hebron) that killed 12 Israeli soldiers.

The message was conveyed to Syrian leaders through U.S. Ambassador to Syria Theodore Qattouf.

"We can only accept the American request on one condition: that Palestinian refugees return to Palestine ... in accordance with (UN General Assembly) Resolution 194," Shara added.

Deputy State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said Washington would not relent in its long-standing demand for the closure of the office.

Qattouf "conveyed our strong position that the Syrian authorities needed to close down this office," Reeker told reporters.

"In terms of their particular response ... I would leave that to the Syrian government," he said. "We'll continue to make our point, as we have for some time, that there is no place for support for this type of organization."

Earlier Tuesday, November 19, Syria rebuffed the demand, saying Washington and not Islamic Jihad was ultimately responsible for the attack and ensuing firefight battle in which three of the Palestinian activists were also killed.

"The United States is responsible for this bloodbath, since it supports the Israeli occupation and provides aid to Israel, which is violating more than 28 resolutions adopted by the UN Security Council," the foreign ministry said in an open letter to Qattouf.

Reeker would not address the Syrian accusation but noted that the country has been designated a "state sponsor of terrorism" by the United States for its support of Islamic Jihad and other anti-Israel groups.

He would not comment on whether Washington had threatened punitive measures against Damascus if it failed to close the Islamic Jihad office, but he indicated that Syria's standing with the United States would rise if it does close the office.

"It is in the Syrians' best interests to get with the mainstream of the international community and reject this type of organization that conducts the type of violence that doesn't produce anything except more pain and suffering for people on all sides,"

Reeker said.

"The Syrian government is certainly well aware of our long-standing concerns," he said.

Qattouf delivered the U.S. message to Syrian officials after Secretary of State Colin Powell took aim at Damascus on Saturday, November 23, saying in the wake of the attacks that "it is impossible to understand how any country that claims a genuine commitment to peace can harbor such groups."

In the letter to Qatouf, the Syrian Foreign Ministry questioned the U.S. commitment to Middle East peace.

"The establishment of a just and comprehensive peace in the region based on the implementation of UN resolutions and the end of the Israeli occupation is not a priority for the United States," it said.

Islamic Jihad says it maintains only a press office in Damascus that "has no military functions.