DAMASCUS, Aug 18 (AFP) - US Congressman Tom Lantos called on Syria Wednesday to sever its alleged links with terrorism and withdraw its troops from Lebanon, during talks with Foreign Minister Faruq al-Shara.
His lobbying comes amid mounting pressure on Damascus which analysts say could presage further sanctions by Washington.
"As a friend of the Syrian people I want to see the leaders of this great nation, the modern incarnation of one of the great civilisations, make the right choice," said Lantos, who is on a tour of Middle Eastern capitals.
"So far the Syrian leaders have resisted those choices."
Lantos, the senior Democrat on the House International Relations Committee, added: "I urged my friend Foreign Minister Shara to get his nation on the right side of the 21st century. I urged him to end Syria`s association finally and totally with terrorism and WMD," or weapons of mass destruction.
US President George W. Bush imposed sanctions on May 11 against Syria, which stands accused by Washington of sponsoring terrorism, seeking to produce weapons of mass destruction, trying to destabilise Iraq and occupying Lebanon.
Lantos was a supporter of the sanctions.
The Democratic Representative for California visited Damascus in April of last year, shortly after the launch of the US-led war against Iraq, and levelled serious criticisms at Damascus.
"There is no change in US policy, but I hope there could be change if Syria takes the appropriate steps, which I outlined privately to President (Bashar) al-Assad during my last visit when I was here in the spring of 2003," he said Wednesday.
"I recognize some small steps that have been taken to close the Syrian-Iraqi borders for the smuggling of terrorists and terrorist weapons," he said, but charged there were still not enough well-trained border guards.
Lantos added that he had urged Shara "to remove Syrian troops from Lebanon and let that neighbouring nation determine its own fate, I urged him to open Syria`s market but more importantly to open Syrian minds by allowing the full freedom of expression and association."
Syrian troops have been in Lebanon since they intervened in the civil war in 1976. An estimated 16,000 Syrian troops are still deployed on Lebanese soil with the approval of the government in Beirut.
Israeli forces withdrew from southern Lebanon in 2000 after a 20-year occupation, but Lebanon and Hezbollah with Damascus`s consent charge that territory Israel captured from Syria in 1967 and still holds is really Lebanese.
Beirut backs Hezbollah`s sporadic actions against Israeli troops on the border, without sending its own forces into the area.