A top Syrian official spurned US charges that Damascus has fomented terror, and insisted that a lasting Middle East peace can be won only by resolving the Palestinian question. "The only solution to the Middle East is to end occupation and settlement," said Syria's Information Minister Bouthaina Shaaban, during a speech in Washington sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations.

With respect to deposed Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, Shaaban said Syria has never harbored affection for the Iraqi regime.

"They sent us explosives and they killed many of our civilian people," she said.

Nevertheless, Syria and other Middle East states have been made apprehensive by the outcome of the war in Iraq, she said, and are troubled by US motives for undertaking the invasion.

"Where are the (weapons of mass destruction) that were such a big reason for launching this war?" she asked.

"What is going to happen to 170,000 pieces from the Baghdad Museum that constitutes Baghad's identity and cultural heritage?"

More troubling still is the lack of clarity over US long-term intentions in the Middle East.

"In the minds of people of the region ... (the war in Iraq) is the first step in an attempt to reshape the region," she said. "They are going to take a right step to Damascus and a left step to Teheran, and they are going to reshape the region."

"In many Arab countries," she added, (the US occupation) "means the undermining of our indigenous civilization, and the bringing in (of) another, Western civilization that is not ours."

Shaaban who shared the podium with US Senator Bob Graham, swept aside the senator's assertion that Hezbollah is a terrorist organization that must be rooted out before Washington and Damascus can enjoy improved relations.

"Hezbollah is a political party whose sole objective is to liberate its territory from the Israeli occupation," she said, noting that some half-million uprooted Palestinians currently live on Syrian territory.

Far from being a state, which supports terrorism, the information minister asserted: "Syria has always worked for peace."

With respect to Iraq, she added: "Syria wants a peace that is enduring," she added, "not a peace that comes out of humiliating people, out of defeating people," she told Graham, who until recently chaired the senate's intelligence committee.

If Syrian President Bashar al-Assad fails to rein in the group, Washington should take action, in concert "with our allies in the global coalition on terrorism," said Graham, who did not elaborate on specific measures.

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Syrian President Bashar al-Assad (AFP/POOL/File)