BBC News Online: World: Middle East

Syria and Iraq forge closer ties

The move was announced following talks between the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the Iraqi Prime Minister Tariq Aziz on Tuesday.

Syrian Foreign Minister Farouq al-Sharaa stopped short of setting a timetable for a resumption of flights between Baghdad and Damascus, but a BBC correspondent says the move is further indication that the days of Arab adherence to the air embargo are numbered.

On Tuesday Jordan announced it would send a plane to Iraq on Wednesday, following similar flights from Russia and France earlier this month.

Sanctions 'not justified'

Officials also said work was under way to renovate and reopen the Iraqi Airways office in Damascus to handle the travel of Iraqi passengers through Syrian airports.

"We believe the preservation of sanctions is not justified because the people of Iraq are those who are mainly suffering as a result," Farouq al-Sharaa said.

Mr Sharaa underlined Syrian demands that the sanctions be lifted, saying his country wanted to "ease the agonies of the Iraqi people."

The closening of ties with Syria after a 20-year break has boosted the confidence of the embattled Iraqi regime.

Improving relations

So far this year, Iraq has succeeded in restoring diplomatic links with Syria, and recently announced the resumption of rail services between the two countries.

The package of measures designed to double trade between the two countries to around $1bn, will be conducted within the UN's oil for food programme.

Relations between the two countries started to improve three years ago following nearly two decades of animosity over Iraq's 1980-1988 war against Iran and Baghdad's invasion of Kuwait in 1990.

Syria sided with Tehran during the Iraq-Iran war and joined the US-led multinational force that drove Iraqi troops out of Kuwait in 1991.