Al-Assad receives Papandreou: UN is only avenue for dealing with Iraq

Syria's President Bashar al-Assad received in Damascus on Sunday, the Greek Foreign Minister, Chairman of the European Council of Ministers, George Papandreou and an accompanying delegation.

Talks during the meeting dealt with the necessity and mechanism of unifying and coordinating efforts among Syria, the European Union and Iraq's neighboring states to avoid a war against Iraq.

Papandreou stressed that Europe played an important role in bringing back the United States to the UN Security Council and lauded the role which Syria had played at the Security Council and in Istanbul to avoid aggression against Iraq.

President al-Assad asserted that the international inspectors' reports underlined the Iraqi cooperation with them and that the inspectors have to be given more time.

The president underlined the importance of enhancing the European cooperation with Iraq's neighboring states for reaching a peaceful solution to the Iraqi crisis in the framework of the United Nations and the Security Council.

''The European role and the regional role of Iraq's neighboring states may constitute an important factor in averting Iraq and saving the region from war's destructive consequences'' al-Assad asserted pointing out the continuation of Syria's efforts regarding that.

Later on, Papandreou and Foreign Minister al-Shara held a press conference where Shara described Papandreou's talks with President al-Assad as very positive.

He underlined the importance of cooperation between the European Union and the Arab states, particularly, Iraq's neighboring states for their historical responsibility in guarding regional security and stability.

Al-Shara added that any solution to the Iraqi crisis should be through the UN Security Council indicating that the UN resolution 1441 doesn't authorize any one to use force.

For his part, Papandreou indicated that there is a chance for reaching a peaceful solution to the Iraqi crisis according to the UN resolution 1441 stressing that the European Union sees that the United Nations is the only authority which should deal with this issue.