Syria gradually restoring links with Iraq

Syria says it's gradually restoring full diplomatic relations with Iraq which were cut twenty years ago.

The Syrian Foreign Minister, Farouk al-Shara, told a news conference in Damascus that a start had been made more than two years ago, and the current Iraqi interests section in Baghdad would become a full embassy.

Syria and Iraq, which are ruled by rival factions of the Baath party, re-opened borders and began economic cooperation in 1997.

They later re-opened a railway link and are reportedly planning to re-activate an oil pipeline closed in 1982. Ties were broken because of differences over the Iran-Iraq war, when Syria sided with Iran.

It also supported the Western-led force that drove Iraqi troops from Kuwait in 1991.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service