Rumsfeld accused Damascus on Wednesday of helping "senior regime people out of Iraq and into Syria" and of continuing to provide Iraqi forces with equipment despite previous warnings.

Syria, a non-permanent member of the Security Council, was a vehement supporter of the anti-war stance adopted by permanent members France and Russia.

"The Syrian regime, the torchbearer of pan-Arab nationalism, must handle with care the feelings of its own population and cannot go back on its stance," one western diplomat said Thursday.

"On the other hand, after the fall of Baghdad, even if the military campaign itself is not finished, it is the end of the Iraqi regime and the Baath Party, which has been in power for more than 30 years. The Syrian Baath Party does not want to follow it to the grave."

For the time being, Syria has to contend with more than 200,000 US and British soldiers over its eastern border, while on its southern frontier lies Israel, which has occupied the former Syrian-controlled Golan Heights since

"One has to expect that American pressures will intensify on Syria, so it will have to be more accomodating on two key questions: the post-war situation in Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," a Lebanese political analyst said on condition of anonymity.

The manoeuvring has only just started between Washington and Damascus, which suspects the Americans of preparing to reshape the Middle East along their lines and those of its close ally Israel.

Shiite Muslims make up 60 percent of Iraq's population. Syria is allied with Shiite mullahs of Iran, and has the controlling hand in Lebanon, where the Shiite minority is numerically important.

Damascus could, for its own survival, play on the religious sensitivities in Iraq and, with the support of Iran, thwart the installation of a new regime in Iraq aligned with the United States.

This is a scenario that Washington will certainly want to prevent.

For around a quarter of a century, the Syrian regime of Hafez al-Assad and now his son Bashar has demonstrated its ability to influence its neighbours, from Lebanon to the Palestinian territories.

The United States has called on Damascus for many years to abandon support for what it has branded "terrorist" organizations, notably Lebanon's Hezbollah and the Palestinian groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell has also termed Syria's military presence in Lebanon as an "occupation".

On Thursday, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw warned Syria against helping what remains of the Saddam regime and urged the country to cooperate with US-led forces in Iraq.

For its part, the Syrian foreign ministry called on the international community to "put an end to the occupation" in Iraq and permit "the Iraqi people to freely choose their government without foreign interference".

Relations, however, between Damascus and Washington are not yet at exploding point. Both appear happy for the moment to trade veiled threats.

Powell has sought to assuage fears in Syria and Iran that the United States might be planning military action against them.

"We believe that all of these nations -- Syria, Iran, others -- should realize that pursuing weapons of mass destruction, supporting terrorist activities, is not in their interest," he said in an interview published Thursday in the Los Angeles Times.

"That doesn't mean that war is coming to them, it just means that the world is changing."

SPACE.WIRE