BEIRUT (AFP) -- Syria cannot draw its shared border with Lebanon because a key southern zone remains occupied by Israel, a government official said in response to a UN call to firm up its frontiers.

"Syria cannot delineate the border of the Shebaa (Farms area) because it is occupied," Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said in an interview on Al-Jazeera television, excerpts of which were printed by Lebanese media Thursday. How could Syria carry out the task, Muallem asked, "by sending people in by parachute to do it?" "Syria is prepared to demarcate its border with Lebanon from the north down to Shebaa, which is occupied and whose border we cannot draw."

UN envoy Terje Roed-Larsen on Tuesday urged the two neighbors to agree on demarcating the border in the area, a small mountainous territory at the convergence of the Lebanese-Syrian-Israeli borders.

Israel captured the area from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war, and it is now claimed by Lebanon with Damascus's consent.

Israeli troops have retained control of the area since their withdrawal from south Lebanon in May 2000 after two decades of occupation. It remains the scene of clashes between Israeli forces and the Hezbollah militia.

The United Nations regards Shebaa Farms as Syrian territory. On the UN call for Syria and Lebanon to establish diplomatic contacts, Muallem said: "If the two sides find that exchanging diplomats serves the interests of the two peoples, then the question can be studied."

Lebanese leaders engaged in political roundtable talks that began in March in a bid to dig the country out of political crisis have called on Prime Minister Fuad Siniora to normalize relations with ex-powerbroker Syria.

On Siniora's plan to visit Damascus, Muallem said he would be welcome and expressed hope the visit would succeed. However, "we want to be able to discuss important matters during his visit, and not begin with items that Syria and Lebanon cannot solve, such as Shebaa."

Roed-Larsen's comments came in a report Tuesday to the UN Security Council which is to be discussed by the body on April 26.

The UN envoy is in charge of overseeing the application of UN Security Council resolution 1559 on the disarmament of militant groups in Lebanon.

The resolution, coupled with international and domestic uproar over the February 2005 assassination of ex-premier Rafiq Hariri, led to the pullout of Syrian troops last year after a 29-year presence.

"I communicated to Roed-Larsen... that we were not in a position to deal with other matters mentioned in Resolution 1559 because they belong to Lebanon and are being dealt with in the framework of the dialogue," Muallem said. A Syrian newspaper blasted Roed-Larsen for his "suspect role."

"Terje Roed-Larsen has renounced his role of UN envoy in which he is supposed to be objective and neutral to take sides with parties in Lebanon at the expense of others and to intervene in strictly Syrian-Lebanese affairs," Ath-Thawra said. He is "flagrantly interfering in Syria's and Lebanon's internal affairs," it said, adding that resolution 1559 is an "essential element in Lebanese tension... and solely benefits Israel." Lebanon "has no other choice but to maintain the resistance (to Israeli occupation), to commit itself to getting back occupied territory and to freeing its prisoners from Israeli jails."