President Mubarak of Egypt, on a visit to Turkey, has delivered a message from the Syrian president, Hafez al-Assad, to his Turkish counterpart, Suleyman Demirel.

Mr Mubarak said the message conveyed President Assad's wish to improve relations with Turkey, but he did not elaborate.

Two months ago, Mr Mubarak helped to broker an agreement which averted the threat of military conflict between Turkey and Syria.

The accord is believed to have forced Syria to expel the Turkish Kurd rebel leader, Abdullah Ocalan, who's now under house arrest in Rome.

But President Demirel said the agreement should work better.

The Turkish media have said that Syria is not living up to its commitment to hand over a number of other Kurdish rebels.