Aston Villa’s deadline-day signing Moustapha Salifou will finally join up with the club after obtaining a work permit.

US president George Bush called on the United Nations to convene a session as soon as possible to deal with a UN report implicating Syrian officials in the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri.

Syria’s ambassador to the US said today that Iraq may be spiralling toward a civil war “that will have a domino effect on the whole region” – and he urged the Bush administration to stop accusing his country of harbouring infiltrators.

The withdrawal of Syrian troops to Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley will be completed by the end of March, the presidents of the neighbouring Mideast nations agreed today.