WASHINGTON, Nov 27 (Reuters) - Syria told a U.S. peace conference on Tuesday that Israel should pull out of occupied land before Arab countries would normalize ties with the Jewish state.

"The establishment of normal ties with Israel ... must be the fruit of comprehensive peace and not precede it," Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Fayssal al-Mekdad told a closed session of the conference in Annapolis, Maryland, attended by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

"To phrase it clearly and decisively that this (normalization) comes after the total Israeli withdrawal from the 1967 Arab land," he said in a speech obtained by Reuters.

"We are sincere in seeking a comprehensive and just peace and posses the political will to achieve it."

(Reporting by Khaled Oweis)

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