U.S. Representative Tom Lantos, the senior Democrat on the House of Representatives International Relations Committee, said using the "historic opportunity" to improve Syrian-U.S. ties after the downfall of Saddam Hussein is conditioned on Damascus ending support for "terrorism."

"I hope it (Syria) will not flounder on continued misguided policies like military support for Hezbollah or the maintenance of terrorist headquarters in Damascus," Lantos told reporters after talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

"The Syrian government can close the terrorist headquarters and put an end to supplying Hezbollah by military means tomorrow morning," said Lantos, from California, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Lantos said he would push for sanctions if Syria did not comply with calls to cease support for "terrorism."

"If Syria continues to provide terrorist headquarters in Damascus, if Syria continues the military supply to Hezbollah, we will draw the consequences and I will personally push for punitive legislation," he said.

Lantos is a co-sponsor of the proposed Syria Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration Act in the House of Representatives.

'Liberation'

The Syrian government spurned the U.S. charges, sweeping aside Hezbollah is a terrorist state.

"Hezbollah is a political party whose sole objective is to liberate its territory from the Israeli occupation," Syrian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bussaina Shaaban told a Washington forum.

Hezbollah led the resistance to Israel's 22-year occupation of south Lebanon which ended in May 2000, forcing the Israeli forces to carry out a messy and humiliating pullout.

But the Israeli army still claimed control over Shebaa Farms in the South and Syria's Golan Heights seized in the 1967 Mideast war.

The Syrian government even bore the brunt of Israeli occupation of Palestinian areas, with some half-million uprooted Palestinians currently live on its territory after being expelled by Israel.

"Peace in the region will only be possible after the Palestinian question is resolved," Shaaban said, adding that the only solution to the Middle East is "to end occupation and settlement," Shaaban told a Washington forum.

'Murky Motives'

The Syrian diplomat noted that Syria and other Middle East nations have been made nervous by the outcome of the war in Iraq and are troubled by murky U.S. motives for undertaking the invasion.

"Where are the (weapons of mass destruction) that were such a big reason for launching this war?" she asked, raising questions about long-term U.S. intentions in the Middle East.

The U.S. officials said they have found no weapons of mass destruction so far in Iraq.

"In many Arab countries," Shaaban added, the U.S. occupation "means the undermining of our indigenous civilization, and the bringing in (of) another, Western civilization that is not ours."

U.S. Senator Bob Graham, a Democrat from Florida, told the same forum at which Shaaban spoke that if Syrian President Bashar al-Assad fails to rein in the group, Washington should take action in concert "with our allies in the global coalition on terrorism,"

Although Graham, who until recently chaired the Senate Intelligence Committee, did not elaborate on specific measures, fears are already rising in the Middle East that Syria could be next of the U.S. 'hit target" list after Iraq.

Washington denied plans to attack Syria, despite press reports that the U.S. administration feel time is not ripe enough to rerun the war against Iraq.

Syria vociferously opposed the war against Iraq, with its President saying that is a "clear occupation and aggression against a U.N. Security Council member state."

Graham, a former Florida governor who has announced his intention to run for the Democratic Party nomination in the 2004 presidential race, pointed out areas of cooperation with Damascus, noting that "Syria was an important coalition member in the first Gulf War.

"More recently, Syria has been helpful to the United States in tracking down members of al-Qaeda, and tonight is playing an important role in apprehending Iraqi officials who, as fugitives, fled into their country."

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell is expected to visit Syria next week as he will be following up on U.S. demands Damascus cease cooperating with the remnants of Saddam Hussein's regime, stop its support for organizations Washington deems to be terrorist and halt its alleged pursuit of weapons of mass destruction.

"Syria is well aware of our concerns, and what we're going to do is discuss those concerns in a spirit of openness and candor, and I will not hold back the strength of our feelings on these positions," Powell told Lebanese television in an interview Thursday, April 24.

Graham converged with the Syrian diplomat in their opposition to the U.S.-led war against Iraq. He said the White House misplaced its priorities.

"The war on terrorism should have been a higher priority than regime change," said Graham, who voted against a Senate resolution authorizing military action against Iraq.

"Terrorist networks pose a greater risk to the security of the people of America than did Saddam Hussein," the lawmaker said.

For her part, the Syrian diplomat said Syria was too intimately acquainted with the horrors of war to support the invasion.