(PARIS) - Syrian opposition parties called on Friday for a protest rally to mark President Bashar al-Assad's visit to Paris next week, to demand a halt to rights abuses in the country.

President Nicolas Sarkozy invited Assad along with some 40 foreign leaders for the launch of a new Union for the Mediterranean, aimed at boosting cooperation between European Union and Mediterranean rim states.

The Syrian leader will meet Sarkozy on the eve of the summit, and stay on for France's Bastille Day ceremonies on July 14, sealing the renewal of high-level contacts between Paris and Damascus.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem was in Paris to prepare Assad's visit, the first by a Syrian leader in seven years.

In a statement issued Friday, Syrian opposition groups called for a rally in Paris on July 13 to demand an end to the "arbitrary arrest of intellectuals and political opponents," to torture in Syrian jails, respect for human rights and the lifting of a 45-year-old emergency law.

The text was issued by the French committee of the "Damascus Declaration," a text signed by Syrian opposition figures calling for "democratic change" in the country. Several of its signatories have been arrested in Syria.

French officials said Sarkozy would raise the issue of human rights during his talks with Assad.

Former president Jacques Chirac cut off official contacts with Damascus over charges of Syrian involvement in the February 2005 murder of former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri, who was a friend of Chirac's. Damascus denies the claims.

"Relations between our countries were cold, but with the summer they are getting warm," Muallem told a conference at the Institute of International Relations (IFRI) in Paris.

Muallem again Friday quashed speculation that Assad could hold a historic meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on the sidelines of the Paris summit.

"That is not on the agenda," said Muallem, who was later to meet his French counterpart Bernard Kouchner and Sarkozy's top aide Claude Gueant.

Assad last week dismissed any direct talks with Olmert on the sidelines of the Paris summit in line with his previous statements that such a meeting would not take place before next year.

The Syrian minister said that indirect talks between Israel and Syria, which resumed under Turkish mediation in March after an eight-year freeze in relations, were "only just beginning."

The two countries have been officially at war since 1948, although armistice and ceasefire agreements have been signed in the interim.

"The essence of the indirect talks is to prepare the ground for direct talks," Muallem said, adding that the process would require "important involvement from the United States, the European Union and Russia."

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