Powell was welcomed by Shara and will meet Bashar Saturday

DAMASCUS, May 2 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – In a bid to clear any misunderstandings and possibly defuse weeks of tension between Washington and Damascus over alleged Syrian ties to the ousted Iraqi regime and support for anti-Israel groups, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell arrived here late Friday, May 2, for one-to-one talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

He was met at the airport by Syrian Foreign Minister Faruq al-Shara and will see Bashar on Saturday, May 3.

They are also expected to take up the Middle East peace process, especially after the Palestinians and Israelis were given the roadmap peace plan and Iraq.

"I will make it very clear to him how the United States views the changed situation in the region with the departure of Saddam Hussein's regime and with the roadmap," Powell told reporters en route to Syria after stops in Spain and Albania, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"I'll explain to him how these two things are related," he said, noting that the roadmap calls also for a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace deal, including Syria and Lebanon, which he will be visiting Saturday before heading home.

He told reporters U.S. President George W. Bush's administration understood Syria's position concerning the occupied Golan Heights, and that Bush was interested in a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace settlement that goes beyond the core Israeli-Palestinian issue.

Powell is to press Damascus to consider U.S. allegations it supports anti-Israel resistance groups, particularly Hizbullah, harbors members of Saddam Hussein's collapsed regime and pursues weapons of mass destruction.

"I want his (Assad's) assessment of the situation," Powell said, while leaving the door open to dialogue against the backdrop of a new regime in neighboring Iraq.

"What I'll be looking for, not necessarily tomorrow, but really into the future, is whether or not as a result of the exchange we have tomorrow and our respective assessments, we start to see specific action and performance on the part of the Syrian government that will reflect an understanding of this new situation."

Powell also referred in passing to Iraqi oil shipments to Syria, which he had been told by Assad would cease but which nonetheless continued until U.S. forces turned off the tap following their invasion of Iraq.

"I will be interested in performance and I am sure it will be imprinted in my mind that two years ago I got assurances about oil going through the pipeline. I will always have that in my background for self reference."

He noted that if Damascus refused to change with the times, it may be subject to new U.S. sanctions under the 2001 USA Patriot Act which aims to quell terrorism and possibly under the Syria Accountability Act which several vocal lawmakers have reintroduced in Congress after failing to win passage last year.

Syria is one of seven nations deemed by the State Department to be "state sponsors of terrorism" for its backing of groups such as Hizbullah.

Just hours before Powell left Washington on Thursday, May 1, the department reaffirmed that designation.

Powell, who has also said he wants to talk to Syria about a complete withdrawal of its troops from Lebanon, said Thursday in Madrid that he did not expect his talks in Damascus to produce instant breakthroughs.

"The real test of the discussions will come not tomorrow or the next day but in the days ahead," he said.

Syria has rejected all of the U.S. charges but has signaled a willingness to address Washington's concerns.

At the same time, Damascus has made clear it will not compromise on certain issues and has tried to redirect the focus to the Israeli occupation of Arab lands, which it considers the root of all problems in the region.

"The change in the regional and international situation will not push Syria to make concessions or compromise on land and rights," the official Ath-Thawra newspaper said Friday.

On a visit to Beirut on Thursday, Shara said Powell was welcome to put forward his views but that Damascus would "not respond to demands".

That was an allusion to U.S. pressure on Syria to end its support for Lebanon's Hizbullah resistance groups, which led the resistance to Israel's 22-year occupation of Lebanon that ended in May 2000.

In remarks published Friday in the Israeli Yediot Aharonot newspaper, U.S. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said Washington had at every opportunity asked Syria to "dismantle" Hizbullah.