Syria urges security cooperation on Lebanon border

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syria's border with Lebanon cannot be controlled without security cooperation with Beirut to strengthen the frontier, the Syrian foreign minister was quoted as saying on Wednesday.

Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem told the pan-Arab Asharq al-Awsat newspaper there was smuggling both to and from Lebanon -- which Syria dominated until 2005 when it was forced to withdraw troops from its smaller neighbour.

"The question of the border between Syria and Lebanon needs two actions: delineation (of the frontier) and Syrian-Lebanese security cooperation," Moualem was quoted as saying. "...Nobody can control the borders with Lebanon."

A U.N. Security Council resolution which ended the 2006 war between Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas called on Beirut to tighten border control to prevent arms smuggling.

A border assessment team dispatched by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in July concluded there had "been no decisive impact on overall border security".

"The overall situation renders Lebanon's borders as penetrable as they were one year ago during the first assessment," it said in an Aug. 26 report.

Moualem reiterated Syria's denial that his country is the main transit route for weapons to Hezbollah -- a political and military movement which has close ties to both Damascus and Tehran.

Syria kept a tight grip on security and politics in Lebanon until the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri. The killing triggered international pressure which forced Syria to end a 29-year military presence in the country.

Damascus has recently warned of growing Islamist militancy in north Lebanon. The Syrian authorities have said a vehicle used in a suicide attack in Damascus on Saturday had crossed into the country from a neighbouring Arab state.