Syria must choose between `peace or belligerence` in its dealings with Israel, and between relations with Iran or the Jewish state, Israeli President Shimon Peres said Wednesday.

`They cannot escape the choice... they are under the impression that they can do both,` the former prime minister and Nobel peace prize winner said during a visit to London.

The UN atomic watchdog on Wednesday reported scant progress in its investigations into alleged suspect nuclear activities in both Iran and Syria.

The UN atomic watchdog said Wednesday it could not yet determine if a building in a remote site in the Syrian desert bombed by Israeli planes last year was a nuclear reactor, as the United States claims.

Nevertheless, puzzling anomalies had been found at the site, the International Atomic Energy Agency said.

The UN atomic watchdog cannot yet determine if a building in a remote site in the Syrian desert destroyed by Israeli planes last year was intended for nuclear use, the IAEA said in a report Wednesday.

The UN atomic watchdog cannot yet determine if a building in a remote site in the Syrian desert destroyed by Israeli planes last year was intended for nuclear use, the IAEA found in a report Wednesday.

Syria must choose between `peace or belligerence` in its dealings with Israel, and between relations with Iran or the Jewish state, President Shimon Peres said Wednesday.

`They cannot escape the choice... they are under the impression that they can do both,` the former prime minister and Nobel peace prize winner said during a visit to London.

Syria must choose between `peace or belligerence` in its dealings with Israel, and between relations with Iran or the Jewish state, President Shimon Peres said Wednesday.

`They cannot escape the choice... they are under the impression that they can do both,` the former prime minister and Nobel peace prize winner said during a visit to London.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is to visit Damascus, a Syrian official said Wednesday, reflecting tightening ties between Moscow and its Cold War ally.

`Tomorrow I will participate in a ministerial meeting to prepare for an upcoming meeting in Damascus of a commission led by the heads of government,` Syrian Economy Minister Amer Lutfi told a press conference.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is to visit Damascus, a Syrian official said Wednesday, reflecting tightening ties between Moscow and its Cold War ally.

`Tomorrow I will participate in a ministerial meeting to prepare for an upcoming meeting in Damascus of a commission led by the heads of government,` Syrian Economy Minister Amer Lutfi told a press conference.

DAMASCUS, Oct 22, 2007 (AFP) - A top North Korean official met Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad on Monday on a visit designed to build ties between Damascus and Pyongyang.

The visit by Choe Thae-Bok, chairman of communist North Korea's Supreme People's Assembly, follows reports -- strongly denied by both countries -- that Pyongyang was helping Damascus develop a nuclear programme.

WASHINGTON, Oct 22, 2007 (AFP) - A top leader of Lebanon's ruling majority accused Syria and Hezbollah of political killings and disrupting its bid to name a new president, shortly before the process was postponed Monday.

'They can kill four more of us and we will be reduced as a majority,' parliamentarian Walid Jumblatt told CNN news Sunday, alluding to the killing of anti-Syrian MP Antoine Ghanem in September which he blamed on Damascus.

'We won't be able to vote for a free president, a president that will abide by international law and resolutions,' Jumblatt said.

JERUSALEM, Oct 21, 2007 (AFP) - Israel's Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni charged on Sunday that weapons were still being smuggled from Syria to the Shiite Muslim Hezbollah, undermining the UN mission in Lebanon.

'Continued smuggling of weapons and ammunition from Syria damages UNIFIL's ability to dismantle Hezbollah's armaments and will do so in the future as well if the smuggling continues,' she told Claudio Graziano, the UN force commander.

LANSDOWNE, Virginia, Oct 21, 2007 (AFP) - US Vice President Dick Cheney on Sunday accused Syria of using 'bribery and intimidation' to undermine a free vote in Lebanon's upcoming presidential election.

'We are of course hopeful and a great deal concerned about the future of Lebanon, which will elect a president in the coming weeks,' he said in a speech to the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

DAMASCUS, Oct 21, 2007 (AFP) - A top North Korean official was holding talks in Syria on Sunday, amid reports -- strongly denied by both countries -- that Pyongyang was helping Damascus develop a nuclear programme.

Syrian Prime Minister Mohammed Naji Otri met Choe Thae-Bok, chairman of communist North Korea's Supreme People's Assembly discussed efforts to boost relations between the two nations, the official SANA news agency reported.

The two men spoke of the 'cooperative relations and historic friendship' between their nations, it said.

DAMASCUS, Oct 21, 2007 (AFP) - Syria denied on Sunday that its President Bashar al-Assad had given his backing to any Turkish military strike against Kurdish rebels in Iraq, as tensions mounted on the Iraqi-Turkish border.

'The issue of possible Turkish military action against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) was not supported by President Assad during his talks with the Turkish authorities,' Information Minister Mohsin Bilal said.

DUBAI, Oct 20, 2007 (AFP) - Iraqi President Jalal Talabani denounced his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad's support for a possible Turkish incursion into northern Iraq to tackle Kurdish rebels, a newspaper said on Saturday.

'President Assad's remarks are dangerous and run contrary to the spirit of Arab solidarity,' Talabani, himself a Kurd, was quoted as saying in an interview with the Saudi daily Asharq Al-Awsat.

DAMASCUS, Oct 19, 2007 (AFP) - Syria says it is ready to open diplomatic ties with neighbouring Lebanon once the current government of Prime Minister Fuad Siniora has been replaced by a more friendly administration.

In a letter to UN chief Ban Ki-moon, a copy of which was carried by the official SANA news agency on Friday, Syria accused Washington and militia leaders from the 1975-90 Lebanese civil war of blocking the establishment of 'balanced' relations between the two countries.

ISTANBUL, Oct 19, 2007 (AFP) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has warned that a failure to preserve Iraq's unity will trigger new bloodshed in the Middle East, a Turkish newspaper reported Friday.

Iraq's disintegration will 'be a bomb that will blow up the Middle East,' the Radikal daily quoted Assad as telling a group of journalists in Istanbul during a visit to Turkey.

'We fully agree with Turkey that Iraq's territorial integrity must be preserved,' he said.

WASHINGTON, Oct 18, 2007 (AFP) - US lawmakers on Thursday apologized to a Canadian who was detained in 2002 by US authorities and deported to Syria, where he was imprisoned and tortured on false terrorism charges.

'Let me apologize to you and to the Canadian people for our government's role in this tragic mistake,' Bill Delahunt, a Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told Maher Arar, who testified at the hearing via video. Other lawmakers also offered their apologies over the case.

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 17, 2007 (AFP) - A UN report wrongly suggesting that a Syrian delegate had said a nuclear site in his country was hit in an Israeli air strike last month was due to an 'interpretation error', a UN spokesman said Wednesday.

'There was an interpretation error' (in the English translation) while the Syrian delegate was addressing the General Assembly's disarmament committee in Arabic Tuesday, Farhan Haq, a UN spokesman, told reporters.

WASHINGTON, Oct 17, 2007 (AFP) - US President George W. Bush on Wednesday refused to comment on media reports that an Israeli air strike in Syria last month hit a nuclear site, saying no 'clever ruse' would get him to talk.

'This is not my first rodeo,' the president told reporters trying to pry information from him during a White House press conference on the mysterious September 6 attack.

As part of his stonewall, Bush declined to say whether he supported Israel's June 1981 air strike on the Osirak nuclear reactor outside of Baghdad.

ANKARA, Oct 17, 2007 (AFP) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Wednesday said he would support a Turkish incursion into northern Iraq against Kurdish rebels, as the parliament in Ankara met to vote for military action.

'We support the decisions the Turkish government has put on its agenda against terrorism and terrorist activities,' Assad told reporters after talks with Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul. 'We see this as Turkey's legitimate right.'

ANKARA, Oct 17, 2007 (AFP) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said here Wednesday that Damascus would back a possible Turkish incursion into northern Iraq to crack down 'against terrorist activities' there.

'We support the decisions the Turkish government has put on its agenda against terrorism and terrorist activities,' Assad told reporters after talks with Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul.

'We see this as Turkey's legitimate right,' he said.

DAMASCUS, Oct 17, 2007 (AFP) - Syria denied on Wednesday reports that an Israeli air strike in the northeast of the country last month had targeted a nuclear site, saying there was no such thing on its soil.

'The Syrian foreign ministry denies reports that Israel carried out a raid on September 6 against a nuclear plant, because no such centre exists in Syria,' it said in a statement.

ANKARA, Oct 15, 2007 (AFP) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will pay a four-day visit to Turkey, starting Tuesday, to discuss regional issues and bilateral ties, the Turkish presidential office said Monday.

Assad was to dine with Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul on Tuesday evening before formal talks on Wednesday, including also meetings with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Ali Babacan, the statement said.

The Syrian leader will also travel to Istanbul before wrapping up his visit on Friday.

VIENNA, Oct 15, 2007 (AFP) - The UN nuclear watchdog said Monday it had no information about any 'undeclared nuclear facility in Syria' and it was investigating media reports that such a site had been the target of a recent Israeli air strike.

The International Atomic Energy Agency 'has no information about any undeclared nuclear facility in Syria and no information about recent reports,' spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said.

WASHINGTON, Oct 14, 2007 (AFP) - Israel bombed a site in Syria last month that Israeli and US intelligence believe was a partly built nuclear reactor possibly modeled after one in North Korea, The New York Times said Sunday.

If the North Korean link is confirmed, that would complicate disarmament talks with the Stalinist state, officials said.

WASHINGTON, Oct 13, 2007 (AFP) - The air raid on Syria conducted by Israel last month targeted a site that Israeli and US intelligence specialists believe was a partly constructed nuclear reactor that may have been modeled after one in North Korea, The New York Times reported on its website Saturday.

Citing unnamed US and foreign officials with access to the intelligence reports, the newspaper said it appeared Israel carried out the September 6 raid to demonstrate its determination to snuff out even a nascent nuclear project in a neighboring state.

SEOUL, Oct 13, 2007 (AFP) - A top North Korean official is to visit Syria, the country's official media said on Saturday, amid fears the two countries are collaborating on a secret nuclear programme.

Choe Thae-Bok, chairman of the communist country's rubber-stamp Supreme People's Assembly, left on Saturday for a foreign trip which will also take him to Italy, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.

'Chairman of the DPRK Supreme People's Assembly Choe Thae-Bok and his party left here on Saturday to visit Italy and Syria,' said the one-line dispatch, monitored here.

NICOSIA, Oct 12, 2007 (AFP) - Cyprus on Friday voiced its disappointment over the start of a ferry service between Syria and the Turkish occupied part of the divided island despite its protests to Damascus against such a move.

'We express our regret that a route has begun at a time when we find ourselves in a dialogue with the Syrian government,' government spokesman Vasilis Palmas told reporters.

'This certainly doesn't help create a desirable climate we are striving for in this dialogue,' he added.

OTTAWA, Oct 12, 2007 (AFP) - An inquiry into allegations that Canada was complicit in the wrongful jailing and torture of three Canadians abroad must be opened to the public or risk becoming irrelevant, the trio said Friday.

The probe, led by retired Supreme Court judge Frank Iacobucci, began in March behind closed doors to determine if the trio was mistreated abroad and whether Canadian authorities shared intelligence with their counterparts in these countries, as alleged.

BEIRUT, Oct 11, 2007 (AFP) - Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora has asked for UN and Arab League help in halting what he said was the flow of illegal arms into the country from Syria, according to a letter seen by AFP.

In a plea to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa, Siniora also accused the Shiite Muslim party Hezbollah, which is supported by both Syria and Iran, of arming opposition groups.

DAMASCUS, Oct 11, 2007 (AFP) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad slammed Lebanese who he said had chosen to side with Israel and submit themselves to foreigners instead of taking the Arab path and that of resistance.

In an interview published on Thursday, Assad said of the neighbouring nation where it was powerbroker for nearly three decades: 'It is impossible to build a relationship with some parties who in Lebanon ... are close to Israel, submit themselves to foreign countries and do not believe in Lebanon.'

DAMASCUS, Oct 11, 2007 (AFP) - A ferry service between Syria and the Turkish occupied northern part of Cyprus began with a first planned regular sailing from Latakia to Famagusta on Thursday, a Syrian maritime official said.

'A ferry did sail today between Latakia and Famagusta,' Tahsin Shehade, in the Syrian port town, told AFP.

'The link by ferry between the two port cities of Famagusta and Latakia is now assured every Monday and Thursday,' the official said, adding: 'This is aimed at promoting tourism between the two countries.'

DAMASCUS, Oct 9, 2007 (AFP) - Mural paintings dating back 11,000 years have been found in a building on a bank of the River Euphrates in northern Syria, a French archaeologist said on Tuesday.

Eric Coqueugniot said they were the oldest murals found in the Middle East.

'Geometric paintings -- black, white and red -- have been found on the wall of a house in Jadeh,' he said, adding that they were discovered in late September in a circular house with a diameter of 7.5 metres (25 feet).

GENEVA, Oct 9, 2007 (AFP) - Israel's air strike inside Syrian territory in early September was not a message for Iran despite claims by some US conservatives, Iran's parliamentary speaker said on Tuesday