DAMASCUS, Oct 25: Syria will not send any troops to Iraq, Syrian Vice President Abdul Halim Khaddam said on Saturday following a meeting with a visiting Iraqi delegation.

“No Arab country will participate in sending troops to Iraq,” Mr Khaddam told a news conference after his meeting with the delegation consists of Iraqi party and tribal representatives.

Mr Khaddam said Syria would support the Iraqi people to get out of its crisis because “the crisis that has inflicted Iraq is the crisis of all the Arab nation”.

“All Arab countries should support the Iraqi people to restore their sovereignty and to restore its natural right within the Arab and international frameworks,” Mr Khaddam added.

Mr Khaddam admitted there were Iraqi assets held in Syrian banks but declined to provide details.

Mr Khaddam said he believed Iraqis would avoid any racial conflicts because they know that internal conflicts will hinder end to the US occupation.

The spokesman for the Iraqi delegation, Saleh Metleg, criticized the Iraqi Governing Council, saying it had put itself in a dilemma by putting its fate in the hands of the occupiers.

He added however that his delegation was open to dialogue with the Governing Council in order to “cure Iraq’s wounds”.

On the Madrid conference, Mr Metleg accused US troops using donations to build camps and special US military sites.

“No development project has been built in Iraq yet. All the projects built in Iraq have been airports, camps and prisons for Iraqis”, he said.—dpa