US takes aim at Syria over human rights

The top US diplomat used a conference in Bahrain attended by Arab leaders trying to promote economic and political reform, to criticize what she said was Syria's "arbitrary detention" of human rights activists.

"We continue to support the Syrian people's aspirations for liberty, democracy, and justice under the rule of law," said Rice in a sideways swipe at the government in Damascus.

"We would like to see an end to the arbitrary detentions of democratic and human rights activists -- including Kamal Labwani and all the prisoners of conscience from the Damascus Spring," she added.

The Damascus Spring was a period of intense political and social debate in Syria which started after the death of President Hafez al-Assad in June 2000.

Opposition activist Labwani was arrested in Syria on November 8 on his return from a visit to the United States where he had met senior US officials.

Syrian Foreign Minister Farouq al-Shara, also at the Bahrain conference, shot back, telling reporters he expected Washington to continue pressuring Damascus because of a "hidden agenda."

"I expect everything because they build their policies on a hidden agenda," he told reporters. He did not elaborate.

Relations are at a low between Washington and Syria, which the United States also accuses of fomenting the insurgency in Iraq by allowing foreign fighters to enter there from Syria.

Rice strongly criticized Syria for what she calls its "non-cooperation" with a UN investigation into the assassination last February 14 of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri.

"They should stop trying to negotiate and cooperate," she told reporters travelling with her on a trip to the Middle East, which began with a stop in Iraq on Friday.

Syria has dismissed a UN report implicating its officials in the bombing that killed Hariri, saying it was politically motivated.

That report spoke of evidence pointing to Syrian and Lebanese involvement in Hariri's killing and said it would be hard to imagine how such a plot could have gone ahead without the knowledge of Syrian and Lebanese intelligence services.

A Security Council resolution demanded Syria cooperate fully with the probe or face unspecified action. UN investigator Detlev Mehlis has until December 15 to complete his inquiry and report to the Security Council.

Syria has insisted it is cooperating with the UN investigation and on Saturday proposed Cairo, Vienna and Geneva as venues for UN investigators to question six Syrian officials. The UN team has asked for the interviews to be in Beirut.

"Syria is going to fully cooperate with the international commission led by Mr. Mehlis. We have no reservations except concerning the sovereignty of Syria," Shara said.

Meanwhile, foreign ministers from industrialised nations and Arab states opened a US-sponsored democracy forum Saturday with calls for peace in the Middle East in order to speed up reforms in the region.

But Arab foreign ministers insisted that progress would be difficult, if not impossible, without a resolution to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

"Peace and stability in the Middle East region will be a catalyst for the success of reform efforts," Bahraini Foreign Minister Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmad Al-Khalifa said.

"This forum is being held amid an atmosphere of conflicts which we cannot ignore. This cycle of violence and counter-violence is feeding the feeling of injustice and frustration" in the region," said Moroccan Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Issa.