BRUSSELS, June 22: Syria came under fire at an international conference on Iraq on Wednesday, where leaders called on Damascus to help stem the flow of militants fuelling the resistance.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was the most explicit, saying that ‘Iraq’s neighbours — Syria, in particular — must secure their borders from those who seek to destroy Iraq’s progress’.

“It’s time for Iraq’s neighbours and especially Syria to live up to its responsibilities,” Ms Rice said after the talks.

But her views were echoed — if not as specifically — in the final declaration of the conference.

The joint statement called on all countries in the region to ‘cooperate with each other to prevent cross-border transit and support for terrorists, to strengthen good neighbourly relations and to improve regional security’.

But Syrian Foreign Minister Faruq al Shara retorted that his country was indeed ‘ready to cooperate’ with the Iraqi government to bolster its borders — and pointed a finger at Washington over the issue.

“The party which is preventing Syria from providing border security in a much more satisfactory way is the same party which is preventing it from obtaining the technology needed to protect its borders,” he said.

Washington has accused Damascus of allowing foreign fighters to cross its border with Iraq to fight the interim government there as well as launch attacks on US-led multinational forces.

The Baghdad government — seeking increased international help to deal with continuing deadly violence as well as to rebuild politically and economically was clearly keen to raise the issue at the Brussels talks.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said that ‘hundreds’ of foreign fighters willing to carry out suicide attacks had been taken into custody by Iraqi authorities.

He underlined that they were all foreign and were from different networks, including Al Qaeda. “They are from Yemen, from Saudi Arabia, from north Africa, Egypt, from Jordan, from Syria,” he said.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al Faisal insisted last week that Riyadh is doing everything to prevent militants from Saudi Arabia from travelling to Iraq to join the resistance there.

Syria is also in Washington’s line of fire over other militant-related concerns including Lebanon, despite the withdrawal of its troops from the country in April.

Specifically, Ms Rice voiced concern about the harbouring of Palestinian extremist groups in Damascus and a series of assassinations of prominent anti-Syrian figures in Lebanon, where it has long played an influential role.

“We are concerned that there could be others and we call on the Syrian government to do everything that it can to deal with the instability that it is helping to create there,” Ms Rice said. —AFP