Ray Kelvin the chief executive said the company’s menswear range had performed particularly well over the period

Ray Kelvin, the chief executive, said the company’s menswear range had performed particularly well over the period. There has been intense debate in Israel over whether Mr Sharon is right to spurn Syria’s advances, and President Katsav may have acted on his own initiative.But the invitation may have been a ploy agreed with Mr Sharon to test how far Mr Assad would go – or even to quieten the debate at home by offering him an invitation he was unlikely to accept.Many Israelis have begun to cool towards the idea of peace with Syria in recent years. When Israel was still mired in Lebanon, peace with Syria offered a way out. The northern front is no longer so pressing.Syria has always insisted that it will only agree to peace if Israel agrees to return all of the Golan Heights – and many Israelis have begun to question whether it is a price they are willing to pay. Having opposed the US in the Iraq war, and with American troops now on his doorstep, Mr Assad badly needs some credit in Washington.Yesterday’s invitation for Mr Assad to visit Jerusalem came not from Mr Sharon but from the Israeli President, Moshe Katsav. Mr Katsav has little political power – his role is largely ceremonial. It seems the lunch in Damascus will have to wait a while yet.None the less, there are signs that Mr Assad is serious about wanting new negotiations on peace with Israel in exchange for the return of the Golan Heights, occupied by Israel since 1967.

A serious response is to say yes, we are interested in peace, we want to negotiate.”For Mr Assad to set foot in Jerusalem while its Arab eastern half, including the al-Aqsa mosque, the third holiest site in Islam, is under Israeli occupation and there is no peace deal with the Palestinians would be to overturn half a century of Syrian rhetoric – a move he was unlikely to make for no more than a vague promise of talks.But for Israelis, the parallel was to the former Egyptian president Anwar Sadat, who accepted an Israeli invitation to Jerusalem in 1977 – a visit which paved the way to 1979’s historic peace deal with Egypt.For decades, Israelis have talked of one day being able to drive to Damascus for lunch, as they now flock to Egypt’s Sinai coast in hundreds to catch the summer sun. Israel has invited the Syrian President, Bashar al-Assad, to come to Jerusalem for new peace negotiations, but Syria has refused the offer.
President Assad has repeatedly called for talks with Israel in recent weeks, but Syria dismissed yesterday’s invitation to Jerusalem as a “media manoeuvre”.The Syrian Expatriates Minister, Buthaina Shaaban, said: “We need a serious response … He would not be drawn on the specific charge, noting that his administration had inherited an official policy of regime change in Iraq from Bill Clinton. Administration officials have have been busy disputing the former treasury secretary’s charges, about Mr Bush’s disconnected management style, saying that in meetings, the President was like “a blind man in a room full of deaf people”.Mr O’Neill said: “I’m an old man and I’ve made plenty of money They can’t hurt me.”. The result has been a damning act of revenge – certainly by far the most explicit insider’s account in the three years of this exceptionally disciplined presidency.Mr O’Neill’s claims – that Mr Bush was bent on toppling Saddam long before the attacks on 11 September 2001, and that he had not seen one shred of serious evidence that the Iraqi dictator possessed weapons of mass destruction – have been seized upon by Democratic candidates as further proof that the country was duped into going to war last March.Mr Bush was trying to downplay the controversy, going out of his way yesterday to speak kindly of his former appointee at a meeting in Monterrey, Mexico, where he is attending a Summit of the Americas. Frasier suggested a romantic dinner, but she was working late with her bossCARLY SIMON (Marie) Wants to go out with a 40-year-old man who’s still single.

The United States Treasury has demanded a formal investigation into whether its former chief Paul O’Neill displayed a secret document in a television interview at the weekend in which he accused President George Bush of planning an invasion of Iraq from the moment he came to office in January 2001. Roz put on air by mistake when she got confused as to which caller was on the lineJODIE FOSTER (Marlene) Threatened her husband she’d go and pick up a stranger if they didn’t have sex in the next two daysART GARFUNKEL (Chester)Fighting with his wife because he feels as if he’s wasting his lifeTOMMY HILFIGER (Robert) Had to speak to Frasier who had a cold. Got cut off for saying his name twiceERIC IDLE (Chuck) Put 100 scorpions into a FedEx package, inspired by Frasier’s “Etiquette lesson”JOHN McENROE (Patrick) Didn’t know if his wife was having an affair. Hyde Pierce, meanwhile, has capitalised on his nervy, upper-class persona in such films as Isn’t She Great? and last year’s Down With Love.

He also played John Dean, the White House counsel, in Oliver Stone’s Nixon.A rousing send-off is likely for Frasier’s final episode, which will probably air in the United States in May. It remains to be seen whether Frasier or Friends bids farewell first.GUEST CALLERSHALLE BERRY (Betsy) Husband wanted to take her on a cruise, but she had a dream about flooding. Details of her recurring dream sent Roz rushing to lavatoryJOHN CUSACK (Greg) First-year psychology student who was manifesting symptoms he was studyingCINDY CRAWFORD (Dorothy) Roz’s manicurist. Grammer’s best known turn was, arguably, as the voice of Prospector Pete in the children’s animated hit Toy Story 2.