Beleaguered Syria denies it has chemical weapons

Facing a hail of accusations by Washington that he has weapons of mass destruction and is sheltering Iraqi leaders, Syria’s president held talks today with a British envoy.

Bashar Assad’s Foreign Ministry flatly denied the American charges.

“Of course Syria has no chemical weapons. They (Americans) have been talking for years about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. But so far, the presence of these weapons has not been confirmed,” said ministry spokeswoman Bouthayna Shaaban.

“I would like to say that there are biological, chemical and nuclear weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East region. They are in Israel, not in Syria,” she said.

President Bush warned Syria on Sunday not to harbour Iraqi leaders and charged that Damascus has chemical weapons.

“We expect cooperation, and I’m hopeful we’ll receive cooperation,” he said. Bush stopped short of threatening Syria with military action but added: “People have got to know that we are serious about stopping the spread of weapons of mass destruction.”

President Assad held talks with Britain's Foreign Office Minister Mike O’Brien, who arrived in Damascus as part of a tour that would also take him to Iraq.

O’Brien said he briefed Assad on “coalition proposals now that Saddam Hussein’s regime has gone.

“Saddam Hussein is finished. The coalition will go home as soon as the Iraqi people have an elected government.”

A British Embassy official said O’Brien’s visit was “part of ongoing dialogue between Syria and Britain,” adding that London was interested in conducting consultations on post-Saddam Iraq with all the countries neighbouring Iraq.

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, speaking in Bahrain, said Syria was not the next coalition target after the war on Iraq but added that it needed to answer questions.

He said the United States and Britain would be looking for Syrian cooperation regarding “some fugitives from Iraq (who) may well have fled to Syria, and other matters, including whether they have in fact been developing any kind of illegal or illegitimate chemical or biological programs.”

Asked whether he believed the Syrians had weapons of mass destruction, Straw replied: “I’m not sure, and that’s why we need to talk to them about it.”

Syria has denied that any members of the Iraqi leadership had fled to Damascus and says it has closed its border with Iraq.

Allied special forces captured one of Saddam Hussein’s half brothers in northern Iraq and said he was planning to cross the border to Syria.

Iraq’s UN ambassador, Mohammed Al-Douri, arrived in Syria on Saturday, a day after leaving New York. It was not immediately clear whether he would return to Iraq.

Shaaban, the Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, said Syria wanted dialogue with the United States.

“The problem is all the accusations against Syria come from Israel,” she said. “Israel is the primary instigator to undermine Syrian-American relations.”