Syria gives help pledge to Iraq president

Syria’s president promised to do what he could to ease tensions in neighbouring Iraq during a landmark visit by the country’s president Jalal Talabani, just days after US president George Bush accused Syria of backing Iraq’s uprising.

A veteran Kurdish politician who spent years in exile living in Syria, Talabani is the first Iraqi president to visit Damascus in nearly three decades. His trip is part of an attempt to warm relations between the long-time rivals.