Iraqi president seeks security, trade deal on landmark visit to Syria

Iraq:Iraqi president Jalal Talabani arrived in Damascus yesterday on the first visit of an Iraqi head of state since 1979. Mr Talabani is set to hold talks with Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and other officials, and to sign agreements on mutual security and trade.

Mr Talabani's visit comes at a time when relations between Washington and Baghdad are strained. On Saturday Iraqi prime minister Nuri al-Maliki gave a cool response to President George Bush's new strategy for pacifying Iraq, which calls for isolating Syria and Iran rather than, as the Baker-Hamilton committee recommended, engaging them.

The US accuses the two governments of meddling in Iraq's internal affairs and aiding and abetting militants attacking US and Iraqi forces. Mr Bush vowed to interrupt the alleged flow of aid to opponents from Iran and Syria. Damascus says it has repeatedly offered to co-operate with the US by closing the country's long frontier with Iraq but Washington has rejected all overtures.

Tensions between Washington and Tehran were exacerbated last Thursday when US troops invaded an Iranian liaison office in the Kurdish city of Irbil and detained six Iranians.

One was later released but the other five remain in US custody, charged with membership in the Quds (Jerusalem) Brigade of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, and with training and arming militants who are mounting operations against US and Iraqi forces. The US action embarrassed the Kurds, especially Mr Talabani who has a connection with Iran going back to the days of the shah and has visited Tehran on several occasions since becoming head of state.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Muhammad Ali Hosseini demanded the release of the men and compensation for damage the US troops did to the office.

He said the liaison office, established many years ago with Kurdish approval, functioned as a consulate. "What the Americans claim is incorrect," he said. "They want to create a climate that justifies their illegal action."

US hostility towards Damascus and Tehran could sour relations with the Iraqi government.

Both the dominant Kurds and Shias depended on Iranian backing to survive during the rule of the ousted regime. Furthermore, Mr Maliki and Mr Talabani lived for many years in exile in Syria, which, like Iran, strove to undermine Saddam Hussein.

Mr Talabani, who travelled on a Syrian passport until 2004, was responsible for last November's restoration of relations, severed when Syria backed Iran in the 1980-88 war with Iraq.

The last Iraqi president to visit Syria was Saddam's predecessor, Ahmad Hassan al-Bakr, who went to Damascus in early 1979 for discussions on reconciling the rival wings of the Baath party then ruling both countries.

The attempt to heal the rift was aborted by Saddam when he took power later in that year.