U.S. - Syria Is Warned.

The Bush administration on Sept. 13 stepped up its rhetoric against Syria, accusing Damascus of aiding terrorist attacks in Iraq and warning that it faced the dangers of becoming "more isolated" if it was not more transparent about its actions in Lebanon. The comments from President Bush, made during a Washington press conference with President Talabani, followed similar remarks from US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, who on Sept. 12 accused Syria of failing to close "training camps" and said US patience was "running out".

A UN investigation into the Feb. 14 assassination of Lebanon's former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri has extended its probe to Damascus amid indications that Syria may have ordered the murder. Bush said the Syrians "were not being fully transparent about what they did in Lebanon. That is a subject of conversations I will be having with other allies [during a Sept. 14 UN summit] in New York. Syria must be a focus of getting them to change behaviour".

President Bashar al-Assad had planned to head Syria's delegation to the UN summit to help break Syria's isolation and show the 40-year-old president as a young reformist Arab ruler. But the UN trip was abruptly shelved as Washington made clear it would shun Assad in New York and would lobby European allies to do the same.

Four pro-Syria security chiefs in Lebanon, which Damascus in effect controlled until April, were charged with the killing of Hariri. The charges represented the first big breakthrough in a high-profile UN investigation and shifted the focus to Damascus, putting Assad's regime under unprecedented pressure. After complaining of Syrian lack of co-operation, Detlev Mehlis, the German prosecutor heading the UN team, held his first talks in Damascus on procedures for interviewing several officers who served in Lebanon until April, when Syria pulled out its troops in the face of mounting international demands for an end to a 29-year military presence. Mehlis asked to see Assad - who in August 2004 allegedly threatened Hariri to "break Lebanon on your head, your children and the head of [French President Jacques] Chirac" for opposition extension of Lebanese President Emile Lahoud's term to another three years - as well as other Syrian government officials.

Syrian officials deny involvement in the Hariri killing, insisting they are the victims of a US-Israeli plot. Officials say Mehlis will be able to "visit" (rather than "interview") Assad. Damascus has also tried to discredit the credibility of recent Syrian defectors, at least one of whom has been co-operating with the UN investigation. Diplomats say Mehlis is, in any case, treating reports given by defectors with caution.

As the inquiry enters its most sensitive phase - it is to end by late October - the stakes for Damascus and a president who took over from his late father Hafez in June 2000 could not be higher. The US, which accuses Syria of aiding Iraqi insurgents and radical Palestinian groups, is convinced that Syrian officials will be implicated. It has been pressing the EU to take steps to isolate the regime even as the probe proceeds. Washington is seeking to impose fresh sanctions against Damascus and is searching for potential alternatives to the country's current ruler. US officials are believed to be considering holding a meeting with Assad's uncle Rif'at, a rival who lives in exile and is popular with some forces at home.

The Financial Times on Sept. 14 quoted Flynt Leverett, a former US administration official and expert on Syria, as saying: "This administration is determined to push...Assad out of office. It is working with Syrian opposition [members] in exile and, it would seem, Rifaat al-Assad to bring this about". A more cautious EU has frozen plans to sign an association agreement with Syria until the end of the investigation.

Mehlis has recommended to Security Council members that the trial of suspects be held outside Lebanon because several witnesses are refusing to have their testimonies shared with the Lebanese authorities, fearing Syrian reprisals.

Damascus is still being accused of keeping secret agents in Lebanon. The FT quoted diplomats as saying options under consideration included a court outside Lebanon headed by Lebanese judges or by a combination of Lebanese and international judges.

Earlier in 2005 a limited UN inquiry looking only at the political environment surrounding the Hariri killing said Damascus bore responsibility for the polarised atmosphere which prevailed in Lebanon. It cited testimony from several people inside and outside Lebanon, who had been told by Hariri that Assad had threatened him with physical harm if he refused to back Lahoud.