BETHESDA, Maryland, April 11 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Hours after Damascus protested an American-Israeli "concerted campaign" over alleged support for Iraq, U.S. President George Bush stressed the country must close its borders to fleeing followers of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and turn over those who have already found "safe haven" in Syria.

"We expect them to do everything they can to prevent people who should be held to account from escaping in their country," Bush said Friday, April 11, after meeting for the first time at two area military hospitals with U.S. soldiers wounded in Iraq.

"And it they are in their country, we expect the Syrian authorities to turn them over to the proper folks," said Bush, who met privately with some 75 hurt soldiers and their families accompanied by First Lady Laura Bush, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"We strongly urge them (Syrian leaders) not to allow for Baath party members, or Saddam's families, or generals on the run, to seek safe haven and find safe haven there," said Bush.

Syria "just needs to know we expect full cooperation," he said.

"We certainly hope that proves to be true," U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.

He said the U.S. military and intelligence agencies would be monitoring the frontier "quite closely," repeating 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.

Syria Complains "Concerted Campaign"

Syria's ambassador to Washington protested Friday against what he called a "concerted campaign" by the United States and Israel against his country.

"It's a concerted campaign of accusations against Syria," Rostom Zohbi said in an interview with the Arab satellite television Al-Jazeera.

"Accusations came from the office of the Israeli prime minister (Ariel Sharon) that arms of mass destruction were sent to Syria" by the Iraqi leadership, the ambassador said.

"This came as no surprise. On the same day, I read the same accusations in (the Israeli newspaper) Haaretz, just hours before Mr. Rumsfeld made his statement," Zohbi asserted.

An Israeli general charged on March 31 that Iraq could have transferred banned missiles and weapons of mass destruction to neighboring Syria, a strong opponent of the war to topple Saddam.