Syria and Jordan to boost ties under new leaders

DAMASCUS (Reuters) -- The new young leaders of Syria and Jordan agreed Wednesday to boost relations which were often strained during the rule of their late fathers.

Officials said Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who took office Monday, and Jordan's King Abdullah, who assumed power last year, had agreed during a meeting in Damascus to revive a joint economic commission and boost commercial exchanges.

They said Bashar had agreed to provide Jordan with water to help it tackle the consequences of a regional drought.

They did not specify any quantity and said this would be agreed by the respective water authorities. Syria has several dams close to the border with Jordan.

Relations worsened after Jordan's late King Hussein signed a peace deal with Israel in 1994 which Damascus saw as a sell-out.

But they started to improve again when the late Syrian president, Hafez al-Assad, attended King Hussein's funeral in Amman last year and began to develop a good relationship with his son, who has visited Damascus several times.

The elder Assad died last month aged 69 after ruling Syria for 30 years.

A Syrian spokesman said Abdullah and Bashar had held two rounds of talks, one of them in private.

He said they discussed not only Arab and regional issues but also economic cooperation.

In a message after leaving Damascus, Abdullah, the second Arab leader to visit Syria since Bashar took the oath of office, told him:

"Your brothers in Jordan look to you with great hope and optimism. We want to achieve the highest level of cooperation between our countries for the benefit of our people.

"Your determination to realize the aspirations of the Syrian people for progress and development is greatly appreciated by us. We affirm our full support for you in your efforts to achieve progress and prosperity for the Syrian people."

Diplomats said the talks had also covered the stalled Syrian-Israeli peace process.

Abdullah, whose country also maintains strong ties with the United States, played a role which helped the resumption of the on-off Syrian-Israeli talks in December.

The negotiations broke off again in early January after failing to register any progress on the fate of the Golan Heights, captured by Israel from Syria in 1967.

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