WASHINGTON, April 15 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - As the United States came under mounting international criticism over its latest threats against Syria, Secretary of State Colin Powell tried Tuesday, April 15, to water down the U.S. bellicose rhetoric.

Speaking to reporters at the State Department’ Foreign Press Center, Powell also tried to ease fears in the Arab and Muslim world that Washington would follow the Iraq war by invading other Middle East nations.

Powell said Washington had concerns about policies pursued by Iran and Syria but insisted there was no plan to attack any other country to topple its leadership or impose U.S.-style democracy, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"We have concerns about Syria, we have let Syria know of our concerns," said the secretary of state.

"We also have concerns about some of the policies of Iran and we have made the Iranians fully aware of our concerns," he added.

"But there is no list, there is no war plan right now to go attack someone else either for the purpose of overthrowing their leadership or for the purpose of imposing democratic values," Powell said.

"We hope that Syria understands now that there is a new environment in the region with the end of the regime of Saddam Hussein and that Syria will reconsider its policies of past years and understand that there are better choices it can make than the choices it has made in the past," he said.

U.S. President George W. Bush, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Powell have in recent days stepped up warnings to Syria in particular that it could face consequences unless changing its policies.

For her part, Britain’s International Secretary Clare Short stressed Tuesday that any attempt by the United States to wage war against Syria would be "intolerable" and one that London would not support.

"Any prospect of extending that (Iraq) conflict would be intolerable and the U.K. is now determined that we support that," Short told a briefing of foreign journalists in London.

"I think the way forward on Syria and indeed the region is to drive forward the Middle East peace process, to get the "roadmap" published," she said, adding that the world had to "resolve the situation of the suffering of the Palestinian people."

British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Monday, April 14, there were "no plans whatever to invade Syria."

But on Tuesday, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw was matching U.S. pressure on Syria to declare whether it has weapons of mass destruction or has taken in fugitives from the ousted regime next door in Iraq.

"There are some important questions for Syria to answer, which includes these questions of chemical weapons," Straw told reporters at U.S. Central Command's war base in Qatar.

In the meantime, Egypt Tuesday renewed opposition to growing U.S. pressure on Syria, with Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher saying Cairo would not accept threats to an Arab state.

"Egypt rejects all threats against an Arab state," Maher told journalists in response to a question on mooted U.S. sanctions against Syria.

"We feel threats are not an appropriate way of dealing with a problem, if there really is one," he added, implicitly casting doubt on the U.S. charge.

"Arab countries and the international community are unanimous on (the need) to avoid what happened in Iraq being repeated once again," the foreign minister said.

"Nothing necessitates a repetition of this scenario," Maher told reporters.

Political Adviser to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Osama al-Baz, said Monday there is "a great difference between Syria and Iraq under Saddam Hussein," adding that Cairo was sure the former did not have chemical weapons.

Meanwhile, around 3,000 Egyptian students demonstrated peacefully Tuesday at Al-Azhar University in Cairo, police said.