WASHINGTON, Feb 15 (AFP) - The United States recalled its ambassador to Syria for urgent consultations and signalled Tuesday a new deterioration in ties after the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri.
Washington stopped short of directly pointing the finger at Damascus. But it linked Hariri`s murder in Beirut to the presence of Syrian troops in Lebanon and used the case to highlight a host of other complaints.
"The Syrian government is unfortunately on a path right now where relations are not improving, but are worsening," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told a news conference here after meeting with her Egyptian counterpart.
"We would hope that the Syrian government would take the opportunity of this signal from the United States to review where we are in the relationship and to try to put our relations on a better path."
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Ambassador Margaret Scobey was called back from Damascus "for urgent consultations following the brutal murder of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri."
He said the envoy was recalled after making two calls on the Syrian foreign ministry to express Washingon`s "deep concern as well as our profound outrage over this heinous act of terrorism."
US officials said they were consulting with members of the UN Security Council on a response to the bombing and mulling additional sanctions against Syria if it did not resolve US complaints over a range of issues.
But Rice signaled that no new actions were immediately likely. "We`ve taken those steps that we think are necessary at this point," she said.
Hariri, 60, was killed Monday with 14 other people when a huge explosion ripped through his motorcade in Beirut in the worst attack in the Lebanese capital since the end of the 1975-1990 civil war.
William Burns, assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, was to attend the funeral Wednesday and also have some courtesy meetings, Boucher said, without giving any details.
The administration of President George W. Bush had already been ratcheting up its rhetoric against Syria in recent months over its presence in Lebanon, support for terrorism and interference in Iraq.
Boucher said the recall of Scobey did not mean a downgrading of relations but added there was no timeframe for when the envoy would return to Damascus.
Washington has long expressed its concerns over Syria`s move to maintain some 14,000 troops and intelligence officials in Lebanon in violation of a UN Security Council resolution.
While Rice would not affix direct blame for Hariri`s death on Syria, she said, "We are united with the rest of the world in wanting a full investigation into what happened.
"There is no doubt that the conditions created by Syria`s presence there have created a destabilized situation in Lebanon."
The UN Security Council on Tuesday condemned the "terrorist" bombing and expressed concern over "further destabilisation" in Lebanon. It asked UN Secretary General Kofi Annan for a report on Hariri`s murder.
In a statement, the 15-nation council also called on all parties to implement a resolution adopted last year calling for the withdrawal of all Syrian troops from Lebanon.
The Bush administration was in consultations with Security Council members on eventual measures against those found responsible for the assassination, the White House said Tuesday.
Spokesman Scott McClellan refused to elaborate what measures were under consideration but said "we talked about how we were to discuss measures to punish those who were responsible for the terrorist attack."
US officials have been threatening to take new action against Damasacus under the Syrian Accountability Act passed in late 2003.
The last measures imposed in May 2004 included a near-blanket ban on US exports to Syria and a green light to freeze Syrian assets in the United States.
Boucher said Tuesday he had no further sanctions to announce but signaled that they were under consideration if US warnings on "many aspects of Syrian behavior" went unheeded.
"The longer we go on without seeing some significant progress in these areas, the more likely it becomes that we`ll look to the various tools that we have, including the Syrian Accountability Act, to impose further measures."

02/16/2005 00:26 GMT - AFP