Syria calls for Israel to disarm

Syria's Assad is making a historic trip to Turkey

Syria will only renounce its weapons of mass destruction programmes in tandem with similar dismantling by Israel, its president said in an interview.

The call came as Mr Assad began a historic visit to Turkey - the first ever by a Syrian head of state.

Bashar al-Assad said it was "natural" for his country to wish to defend itself without coordinated disarmament by the whole Middle East region.

"Unless this applies to all countries, we are wasting our time," he said.

Mr Assad's three-day visit to Turkey is being seen as the culmination of a warming in relations between the two neighbours after decades of mistrust.

The war in Iraq, which borders both countries, has contributed to the thaw.

Weapons 'easy to obtain'

In an interview with UK newspaper the Daily Telegraph, Mr Assad justified his country's need for weapons of mass destruction.

"We are a country which is [partly] occupied and from time to time we are exposed to Israeli aggression," he told the paper, referring to Israel's attacks on alleged Palestinian bases in Syria and its occupation of the Golan Heights.

"It is natural for us to look for means to defend ourselves," he said.

"It is not difficult to get most of these weapons anywhere in the world and they can be obtained at any time," he added.

Syria is suspected of running chemical and biological programmes. Libya's recent pledge to abandon weapons programmes has increased pressure on Syria to do the same.

Israel is widely believed to hold a nuclear arsenal, but has never admitted it.

Verge of war

Mr Assad's visit to Turkey tops a string of smaller steps, including military and security agreements and increasing bilateral trade.

The BBC's Steve Bryant in Turkey says that for Syria, accused by the United States of supporting terrorism, friendship with US ally Turkey is a valuable prize in itself.

Mr Assad's father, Hafez al-Assad - who ruled Syria for 30 years until his death in June 2000 - viewed Turkey with suspicion as an ally of Syria's two main enemies, the US and Israel.

Iraq's future is bound to the future of all of us President Assad

Syria accused Turkey of depriving it of water from the River Euphrates.

Turkey, meanwhile, accused Syria of harbouring Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan, whose Kurdistan Workers' Party was fighting a long and bloody war in south-east Turkey.

That issue brought the two countries to the verge of war in 1998.

But since he succeeded his father, Mr Assad has sought to end the tension between the two countries.

Now Damascus turns a blind eye to Turkey's alliance with Israel.

And after the bomb attacks in Istanbul late last year, Syria handed over 22 Turks suspected of involvement.

Turkey and Syria have common interests in Iraq. Both have sizeable Kurdish populations and neither wants to see the Kurds of Iraq winning independence under the new constitution there.

Mr Assad said Iraq is the biggest problem facing the two countries today.

"Iraq's future is bound to the future of all of us," he said before his departure.

"For that reason, the break-up of Iraq would be a red line, not only as far as Syria and Turkey are concerned, but for all the countries in the region."