While Britain and Spain said the situation could be defused peacefully, former colonial power France said it had seen no evidence to back up Washington's allegations, which Syria angrily denies.

Having toppled Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq, the United States has turned its attention to Syria, accusing it of supporting terrorism, developing weapons of mass destruction and harbouring members of Saddam's regime fleeing from neighbouring Iraq.

Top aides to US President George W. Bush stopped short of threatening military action but warned Damascus to take stock of the US-led rout in Iraq.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Bush's staunchest ally in the war on Iraq, has pursued a more cautious line on Syria, whose President Bashar al-Assad last year had tea with the queen at Buckingham Palace.

Blair's spokesman said Tuesday Damascus was showing signs of a willingness to meet Washington's demands to cooperate and Britain's minister for Middle East affairs Mike O'Brien visited the Syrian capital on Monday.

"The first thing is that we want the Syrians to cooperate, and we believe that there is some evidence -- in terms of border controls and so on -- of the Syrians starting to respond," said the spokesman.

"But let's take this step by step, and see how the Syrians respond to the overtures that we have made."

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar said Syria would not be the target of any military action and that he hoped to talk to Assad as soon as possible.

"Syria is and will remain a friend of Spain and will not be the target of any military action," Aznar said during a visit to Warsaw.

"I am convinced that the conflict (in Iraq) will not spread to other countries in the Middle East."

But France insisted it had seen no evidence to back up the charge made by US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld that Syria conducted chemical weapons tests in the past year.

"The situation around the world is dangerous enough, without our targeting one country or another on the question of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction," French European affairs minister Noelle Lenoir said.

Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said he had seen no evidence to back up the US charges but urged Damascus to "act wisely".

"So far we don't have any evidence, but maybe the Americans have, we will see of course," he said.

Richard Butler, who was chief UN weapons inspector between 1997 and 1999, told Australia's ABC Radio that he had been shown intelligence at the time which seemed to indicate Syria had helped conceal Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.

Syria on Tuesday condemned Washington's "threats and accusations" and said they were inspired by Israel, the strongest military power in the Middle East.

Syria's ambassador to the United Nations, Rostom al-Zoubi, told CNN: "We don't have weapons of mass destruction.

"It is Israel which has a big arsenal of weapons of mass destruction.

"Why focus on Syria at this time, forgetting Israel. This is ... double standard."

Leading US newspapers urged the Bush administration to avoid military threats against Syria.

Liberal dailies The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times warned Washington against being viewed as too belligerent in the Arab world.

"Washington will only live up to the worst expectations of the Arab world if it now adopts a belligerent military approach to every nation in the region that it dislikes," The New York Times said.

In Britain, The Times columnist Amir Taheri said: "The hawks are wrong to urge war against Syria, but added: "The British government is right to insist that Syria's leaders can be persuaded to play ball.

"Assad's regime has always understood the reality of power and the need to back down when in a position of weakness," he added.

Support for political and human rights reforms, an end to support for terrorist groups and public support for the Middle East peace "roadmap" could all be won, Taheri said.

Spain's El Pais said: "Washington's message towards concerning the Middle East brings not hope, but fear and uncertainty."

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