Syria, Iraq restore ties

Iraq and Syria restored full diplomatic relations yesterday after a 24-year rift in a move Iraq hopes can help stem what it says is Syrian support for militants and encourage other Arab states to rally to its aid.

Syria's foreign minister, on a first such visit since US troops overthrew Saddam Hussein, signed the accord in Baghdad four days before the Iraqi president flies to Iran for talks with another neighbour which Washington and Iraqi leaders accuse of backing militants pushing Iraq into all-out civil war.

Allies are also urging US President George W. Bush to talk about Iraq to his adversaries in Tehran and Damascus but Washington reacted warily to the surge in regional diplomacy.

Sectarian passions boiled in Iraq's parliament amid fears it may be too late for talking to reverse a slide into anarchy. "We have agreed to walk together in measured and quiet steps," Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari told reporters.

Like his Syrian counterpart Walid al-Moualem, he stressed the visit was not the result of US pressure: "(It) sends an important message to Arab nations that we are masters of our own decisions... and did not happen due to an outside will."

Mr Moualem, who had called for a timetable for withdrawing US forces, agreed they would stay until Iraq no longer wanted them.

Iraqi officials said three people were killed, including a baby, in a US air strike on a Shi'ite stronghold in Baghdad during a raid that seized members of a group suspected of links to the abduction last month of an Iraqi-born US soldier.