Omani Foreign Minister Yusuf Bin Alawi declared Wednesday that the Gulf sultanate would forge ties with "the Israeli peace forces" if doing so would lead to peace.

Bin Alawi made his comments at the conclusion of a meeting held in Kuwait with a local colleague after a journalist asked about normalization of ties with Israel and Oman's position on the matter.

Bin Alawi added "there is no doubt that we will continue to encourage Israel" to withdraw from the Arab territories.

"Israel is currently busy with an internal crisis and is not at the moment dealing with ties with Arab nations," he said.

Israel and Oman have in the past maintained low-level diplomatic ties. An Israeli interest office operating in Oman's capital city of Muscat was closed at the outbreak of Israeli-Palestinian violence in 2000.

During the past several months - particularly since the implementation of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan - the Foreign Ministry has boosted its contacts with figures in Oman and in other Arab nations in an effort to renew ties that had shriveled over the past number of years.

The renewed contacts with Israel have ignited internal debates on the matter within these Arab states.