DAMASCUS: The streets of Damascus are festooned with flags, banners and huge portraits of Bashar al-Assad ahead of an uncontested referendum to confirm him as president for another seven years.

Assad has weathered storms over Iraq and Lebanon, riding out US-and French-led attempts to isolate his country. At home he has promoted limited economic reform and consolidated his own power, while dashing early hopes for political freedom.

The ruling Baath party chose him as its sole candidate, parliament endorsed him and the authorities are sparing no expense to portray the plebiscite as a gush of national loyalty.

They are clearly looking for a bigger voter turnout than the sparse showing in last month’s parliamentary polls – officials put it at 56 per cent, diplomats at 10 to 15 per cent.

“We love you Bashar” is the most widespread of the myriad slogans on giant billboards praising the 41-year-old leader.

Another reminds Syria’s 19 million people of the relative stability they enjoy despite US pressures and the instability racking their Iraqi, Lebanese and Palestinian neighbours, saying that without him “we wouldn’t have overcome the crises”.

Syria hailed a meeting last month between its foreign minister and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as a signal that Washington had recognised the futility of treating it as a pariah state until it submitted to US dictates.

But the nascent dialogue has yet to bear fruit. The United States still accuses Syria of meddling in Iraq and Lebanon, maintaining the economic sanctions it imposed in 2004.

Several European foreign ministers have visited Damascus in recent months, although a trade and reform deal with the European Union has remained on ice since 2004.

“We do not want to isolate this country, which has an important strategic role to play in this region,” Vassilis Bontosoglou, EU ambassador to Damascus, said.

“We believe in dialogue,” he said. “It’s good to talk, but you arrive at a point where some of the things you discuss have to be translated into concrete action.”

Any rapprochement with the West could hit trouble as the UN Security Council considers whether to impose an international tribunal to try suspects in the assassination of Lebanese former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri in 2005.

UN investigators have in the past implicated Syrian and Lebanese security officials. Damascus denies any involvement and says it will have nothing to do with the tribunal.

Syria’s opponents in Lebanon accuse it of stirring instability there to sabotage the international court.Two years ago, Assad had his back to the wall after being forced to withdraw troops from Lebanon and loosen the political grip Damascus had held on its tiny neighbour for decades.

Assad’s loyalists and critics agree that he has strengthened his grip on power since he took office in 2000 after the death of his father Hafez al-Assad, who had ruled Syria for 30 years.

“Bashar is more secure now,” said former political prisoner Raed Nakshbandi. “Then there were many rivals to challenge him.”

He said Assad had won vital support from the ruling elite and his own family in 2005 when he vowed not to hand over Syrian citizens to any UN-backed Hariri tribunal. The president said anyone found to be involved would be dealt with as traitors.

“Bashar was able to survive the setbacks to relations with the US over Iraq and the position in Lebanon,” said Georges Jabbour, a loyalist former member of parliament. “These things looked for a while as if they threatened the regime.”—Reuters