BAGHDAD - Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari on Wednesday stepped up the pressure on Syria, again accusing its neighbour of not doing enough to prevent insurgents crossing into Iraq.
"What we need is more cooperation because what they have done is not enough," Zebari told journalists after a meeting with Italian Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini.
Baghdad and Washington have repeatedly accused Syria of aiding the Iraqi insurgency by supplying foreign fighters and failing to prevent militants from crossing its border with Iraq, charges that Damascus vigorously denies.
"The relationship with Syria is not all right, that is the least we can say," Zebari said, adding however that Iraq is "eager to keep our good relationship with neighbouring countries."
"A key issue is to establish a mechanism for security cooperation (with Syria) we think the continued flow of those foreign fighters, unhindered or unchecked, is a serious matter," he said.
Zebari said Iraq had given a list of suspected militants believed to be in Syria to Damascus and asked the authorities there to "prevent the existence and work of these figures in Syria".
"In Iraq we don't have any interest in creating a crisis with a neighbouring country, what we need is for those neighbouring countries to respect the new Iraqi leadership."
Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari said on Friday that Baghdad would hold talks with Damascus soon to demand action against insurgents infiltrating from Syria.
"There are some armed groups infiltrating from Syria. We will talk about how much the Syrian government knows about these infiltrations," he said during a visit to Ankara, his first foreign visit since taking office earlier this month.
After a surprise visit to Iraq earlier this month, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned that the United States, which imposed economic sanctions on Syria last May, would renew pressure on Damascus.
US military officials in Baghdad have charged that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the top Al-Qaeda leader in Iraq, met with top lieutenants in Syria recently and ordered them to step up car bombings in Iraq.
05/25/2005 10:26 GMT