Fed: Aust urges Syria and Iran to cooperate on WMD hunt

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Fed: Aust urges Syria and Iran to cooperate on WMD hunt

By Rob Taylor, Foreign Affairs Correspondent

CANBERRA, April 14 AAP - Australia today urged Syria and Iran to cooperate with US-ledefforts to find and destroy any Iraqi chemical or biological weapons.

US President George W Bush has accused Syria of possessing chemical weapons and alsowarned Damascus not to allow any senior Iraqi leaders to escape into Syrian territoryin an effort to flee coalition forces.

"I think that we believe there are chemical weapons in Syria," Mr Bush said.

"The Syrian government needs to cooperate with the United States and our coalition partners.

"It must not harbour any Baathists, any military officials who need to be held to accountfor their tenure."

Mr Bush said US intelligence also indicated Syria had stockpiles of chemical weapons,including the deadly nerve gas sarin.

But he stopped short of saying whether Damascus could face pre-emptive strikes to destroyits alleged weapons stockpile.

"They just need to cooperate," he said.

"Each situation will require a different response."

A spokesman for Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Australia was aware of intelligencereports that Iraqi weapons, including chemical weapons, may have been moved into Syria.

"If those reports are true, they would be very disturbing," he said.

"We would strongly urge Syria, and other neighbouring countries, to cooperate in effortsto uncover Iraq's weapons of mass destruction."

Mr Downer has previously ruled out the need for pre-emptive strikes on Syria and Iran,saying Australia believed differences could be solved through diplomacy.

His spokesman reiterated those comments today.

"We haven't talked about any precipitous action anywhere else," he said.

"We're dealing with Iraq. We have relations with Iran. These issues need to be dealtwith, but they're certainly not comparable with the situation that we found in Iraq inthe lead-up to the conflict."

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld earlier said dozens of Syrians were killed inthe fighting in Baghdad, while many others continued to enter the country.

And while he declined to name Syria, he said the US had reports Iraqi chemical weaponswere sent to a neighbouring country.

"The government's making a lot of bad mistakes, a lot of bad judgment calls, in myview, and they're associating with the wrong people," he said.

"The fact of the matter is that Syria has been unhelpful and pretending that that'snot the case, it strikes me, is to deny the truth.

"And I don't think you can live a lie."

Syria has denied the accusations and in turn said Washington was trying to divert attentionfrom the deepening chaos and looting in Iraq.

AAP rft/sb/ph/de

KEYWORD: IRAQ SYRIA DOWNER