Lebanon and Syria vow reconciliation before EU-Mediterranean summit

Paris, France: The leaders of Syria and Lebanon agreed on Saturday to normalise relations in a diplomatic coup for French President Nicolas Sarkozy on the eve of a summit to launch a Union for the Mediterranean.

Syrian President Bashar Al Assad that the two countries planned to open embassies in each other's capital for the first time.

Speaking alongside Sarkozy and Lebanese President Michel Sulaiman, Assad said: "We can say that Lebanon has moved from being a zone of turbulence, a war zone, to a more pacified zone when the Lebanese, and only the Lebanese, have the right to determine their own future."

He also asked France to play a role, alongside the United States, in supporting direct talks between Syria and Israel.

He said he did not expect such negotiations until President George W. Bush leaves office next January because the current US administration was not interested in Middle East peace.

Sarkozy called Assad's announcement of diplomatic relations with Beirut "absolutely historic" and a great step forward for Lebanon, a former French protectorate, but he acknowledged that some legal issues remained to be resolved.

Meanwhile, senior officials meeting on the eve of the conference failed to resolve differences over how to address the Middle East peace process, a role for the Arab League, and the issue of weapons of mass destruction in a planned joined statement, diplomats said.

But they said there was now consensus that France and Egypt would co-chair the new organisation for the first two years. Foreign ministers will try to settle the remaining differences on Sunday morning.