Convinced that Israel is planning an attack has led Syria to beef up its military strength, a top Israeli intelligence official says.

Noting that while the Syrian army's deployment along the Golan Heights has not changed, Brig. Gen. Yossi Baidatz warned that Syria has increased its activity in order to prepare for a possible Israeli attack, according to Haaretz.Com. Syria, he said, believes that Israel is planning to attack, and has therefore increased its military activity. Syria, however, is reluctant to go to war, and therefore are not expected to initiate it.

Syria is closely following the activity on the Israeli side and is highly sensitive to Israel Defense Forces action in the Golan, Baidatz explained. In Syria, an official said his nation was "sleeping," but that its eyes were open and it was keeping careful watch over the Golan.

The same official lashed out at both the U.S. and Israel, calling the two allies a snake.

Israel and the United States are a snake "ready to attack at any minute, even if it knows it will die," said Syrian Information Minister Mohsen Bilal, who, Israel Radio reported, told the Persian Gulf newspaper Al-Hilaj, that Israel is an "immoral" nation lacking in values, charging that former president Moshe Katsav, who has been accused of sexual harassment, had raped a "young daughter of his people."

Bilal also criticized Saudi Arabia for participating in a regional peace conference initiated by President Bush, The Jerusalem Post reported. The Post added that his remarks came on the heels of a survey conducted by an American group Terror Free Tomorrow and published in several Syrian media outlets that indicated that 51 percent of Syrians would favor a peace treaty with Israel if it withdrew from the Golan and recognized Syrian sovereignty there.

In the poll, 63 percent of Syrians said they favored having their country work with the U.S. to resolve the war in Iraq. By a slight 44 percent to 39 percent margin, most said they oppose fighters crossing from Syria into Iraq. Yet three-fourths said they supported financial assistance for Iraqi fighters as well as Hamas, the Islamic Jihad, and Hizbullah.

The survey also found that an overwhelming number of Syrians consider trade and political relations with Western countries important, but they narrowly oppose closer ties to the U.S.