April 04, 2007	Wednesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 15, 1428

DAMASCUS, April 3: House speaker Nancy Pelosi arrived in Syria on Tuesday for a controversial two-day visit amid protests from the White House that she is undermining US policy.

Pelosi, an ardent opponent of US President George W. Bush, smiled and shook hands with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem, who welcomed her to Damascus.

On Wednesday, she is due to meet President Bashar al-Assad.

But as she kicked off her visit, Bush warned in Washington that trips to Syria by high-ranking figures send “mixed signals” that harm administration efforts to isolate Assad.

“Photo opportunities and/or meetings with President Assad lead the Assad government to believe they're part of the mainstream of the international community, when, in fact, they're a state sponsor of terror,” Bush told reporters in Washington.Syria is “helping expedite, or at least not stopping, the movement of foreign fighters from Syria into Iraq,” Bush charged, adding that Damascus has “done little to nothing to rein in militant Hamas and Hezbollah” and worked to “destabilise the Lebanese democracy.”

The Syrian ambassador to Washington, Imad Mustafa, told Tishrin Pelosi's visit was “a positive step ... in the framework of a calm dialogue” between the two countries.

Pelosi has shrugged off the administration's criticism and insisted her talks with Assad were key to renewing a dialogue on Iraq and Lebanon.

“Our trip to Syria is one that is important to us ... (and) is part of our responsibility for the national security of the United States,” she said in Beirut on Monday.

She insisted that it falls in line with the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, which the Bush administration to engage foes Damascus and Tehran in the search for solutions to the crises in Lebanon and Iraq. She said that during her visit “we will be talking about the overarching issue, the fight against terrorism and the role that Syria can play to help or to hinder that role.” Pelosi also noted that three politicians from the president's Republican party visited Damascus on Sunday.

The top Democrat is expected to transmit to Syria Israel's views on the long-stalled peace process with Damascus, which demands the return of the Golan Heights seized by the Jewish state in 1967.—AFP