Saudi - Egyptian efforts regarding the Syria-Lebanon problem

The Egyptian President Muhammad Hosni Mubarak and the Saudi King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz agreed in conclusion of their summit meeting in Jeddah to delegate a high ranking Saudi official to Damascus today, Wednesday.

Simultaneously, the Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak heads to Paris to meet with the French President Jacques Chirac in order to discuss with him results of the summit and the implications of the statements made by the Syrian former vice president Abdul Halim Khaddam, who is now in Paris, on Syrian threats against the assassinated Lebanon former prime minister Rafiq Hariri.

Mubarak and Syria's President Bashar al-Assad met twice since late October in what were rare summit meetings in recent months for the Syrian leader.

An Egyptian diplomatic source said that the two leaders agreed on the need of "averting Syria international pressures that threatens its security and stability, and the need to preserve the Syrian- Lebanese reconciliation."

He added that President Mubarak and King Abdullah also agreed on the need that Syria to cooperate fully with the UN committee in the murder of Hariri.

This comes at a time when the US escalated its pressure on Syria and said that its President Bahsar al-Assad and other senior officials should be interrogated by the UN committee.