WASHINGTON, April 10 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Facing ratcheting American bellicose rhetoric and even threats by some lawmakers to propose a sanctions bill, Syria told American officials it has closed its borders with Iraq except for humanitarian aid.

"We now understand that Syria has closed its borders to all but humanitarian traffic," U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Thursday, April 10.

"That's what they have told us and we certainly hope that proves to be true."

The U.S. ambassador to Syria, Theodore Khattouf, had been told of the closure in meetings with Syrian officials in Damascus but stressed that Washington would be watching the border closely to see if the move was enforced, the State Department said.

Boucher said the U.S. military and intelligence agencies would be monitoring the frontier "quite closely" and he repeated warnings issued over the past few days by senior U.S. officials that Syria faced a critical choice in its dealings with Iraq.

"Syria has choice to make and we hope Syria makes the right one," Boucher told reporters.

A senior State Department official said later it was possible that Damascus's definition of "humanitarian traffic" might well be different than Washington's.

This came hours after a number of U.S. lawmakers said they would propose legislation to hold Syria accountable for supporting terrorism and pursuing nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.

"Now that Saddam Hussein's regime is defeated, it is time for America to get serious about Syria," Representative Eliot Engel of New York said in a statement.

The Syria Accountability Act of 2003, sponsored by Engel and his colleague Ileana Ros-Lethinen of Florida, would allow President George W. Bush to impose sanctions if Damascus fails to meet U.S. demands.

For his part, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw warned Damascus Thursday against helping what remains of Saddam Hussein's regime and urged the country to cooperate with U.S.-led forces in Iraq.

"We look to Syria to end any and all assistance to the Iraqi regime and to cooperate fully with the people of Iraq and with the coalition forces."

Straw told the House of Commons that he was sending foreign office minister Mike O'Brien to Syria and Iran to discuss their role in Iraq's post-war reconstruction.

But U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell sought to assuage fears in Syria and Iran that the United States might be planning military action against them, saying recent U.S. warnings do not mean that "war is coming" to these countries.

"We believe that all of these nations -- Syria, Iran, others -- should realize that pursuing weapons of mass destruction, supporting terrorist activities, is not in their interest," Powell told Los Angeles Times in an interview.

"That doesn't mean that war is coming to them, it just means that the world is changing," he elaborated.

Powell, however, said that the Bush administration has many options to deal with the "threats" it faces other than the military one.

"But it doesn't mean that the only consequence the American president can think of is to reach in the tool box for the military," said the secretary of state.

"We have many ways of dealing with the challenges that we face."

U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz told the Senate Armed Services Committee Thursday that Syria has been "behaving badly" on the sidelines of the war on Iraq.

"The Syrians are behaving badly, they need to be reminded of that and if they continue we need to think about our what our policy is," he said.

"It's very dubious behavior, and by calling attention to it we hope that in fact it will be enough to have them stop," Wolfowitz said, accusing Syria of harboring terrorists and war criminals.

He also alleged that Syria has shipped "things" to Iraq.

Asked whether there were plans to send U.S. forces into Syria, Wolfowitz replied: "None I know of, sir."