Syrian President Bashar al-Assad urged at an emergency summit on Friday that Arab nations should cut ties with Israel which has been pounding the Palestinian enclave of Gaza since December 27.

The Arab-Israel peace initiative is "dead", Assad told the meeting, calling for the Arabs to cease "all direct and indirect ties" with the Jewish country.

As for Syria, Assad said his country will kill the long-stalled indirect talks over the disputed Golan Heights with Israel under the auspices of Turkey.

In May, Syria and Israel, technically still at war since the first Arab-Israeli conflict in 1948, began Turkish-mediated indirect talks after direct negotiations halted nine years ago over the thorny Golan Heights issue.

Following four rounds of negotiations, the process has been on hold since outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced in July he would step down over corruption allegations.

The Doha emergency summit, hastily proposed by Qatar on Monday, was held as scheduled despite it did not reach the quorum of two thirds of the 22-member Arab League to hold such a summit with regional heavyweights Egypt and Saudi Arabia refusing to attend.