Lebanon's Aoun visits old foe Syria, meets Assad

By Marwan Makdessi

DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Lebanese Christian politician Michel Aoun turned the page on a turbulent past with Syria on Wednesday in a visit to Damascus condemned by rivals who still see the neighbouring state as a threat.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad greeted Aoun warmly at his hilltop palace in a meeting underlining the dramatic shift in the position of the former general who was defeated in battle by Syrian forces at the end of Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war.

"We spoke with our hearts and minds ... so there remains no trace of a past in which there are many painful things," said Aoun, who heads the largest Christian bloc in parliament.

"Our meeting today is a promise of a bright future," he added at a news conference afterwards.

Buthaina Shaaban, an adviser to Assad, said Aoun's visit opened "a new era in relations between Syria and Lebanon".

Aoun holds no official post, but he is an influential figure in Lebanon's sectarian politics and an ally of the powerful Shi'ite Hezbollah, a pro-Syrian faction with a guerrilla army.

Relations between Damascus and Beirut have improved this year after an agreement to calm a bitter power struggle between a U.S.-backed coalition opposed to Syrian influence in Lebanon and an alliance led by Hezbollah and its allies, including Aoun.

Aoun, 73, was prime minister of an interim government when he was forced into exile under Syrian fire in 1990.