Offaly Anti-War Movement

Assad

The Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) - whose members control nearly half the world's known oil reserves - also said that setting up a transitional government in US-occupied Iraq was an urgent priority.

US officials have accused Syria of harbouring members of the former Iraqi regime and developing weapons of mass destruction - allegations that Damascus denies.

Economic and diplomatic sanctions have been threatened, and some US Government spokesmen have refused to rule out military action.

Tuesday saw US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld confirm that a pipeline supplying Iraqi oil to Syria, apparently in contravention of United Nations sanctions, had been "shut off".

Later, US officials said a former leading member of the Iraqi intelligence service, Farouk Hijazi, was believed to be in Syria.

Correspondents say Mr Hijazi was a director of the Iraqi intelligence agency in the 1990s when it is alleged to have carried out a failed attempt to assassinate the then US President George Bush - father of the current president.