DAMASCUS - Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was in Syria Tuesday to join President Bashar al-Assad in watching a friendly match between top football clubs from the two countries.
Erdogan, who played football in amateur Istanbul clubs in his youth, is a fan of Turkish league leaders Fenerbahce, who are taking on Syrian first-division outfit Al-Ittihad in the game which marks the opening of their new stadium in the northern city of Aleppo.
Erdogan was to hold talks with the Syrian president on the "situation in the region" on the sidelines of the game, the official SANA news agency reported.
Damascus had long strained relations with Ankara over its harbouring of Kurdish terrorist leader Abdullah Ocalan, but in 1998 he was forced to leave Syria and was eventually captured, tried and imprisoned by the Turkish authorities.
04/03/2007 17:25 GMT