UN head Ban Ki-moon met President Bashar al-Assad on Tuesday to discuss the planned international trial of ex-Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri's killers. The Syrian president and Ban "reviewed the situation in Iraq, Palestine and Lebanon", Syria's state news agency SANA said, adding that the UN chief went on to talks with Vice President Faruq al-Shara.
Ban, accompanied by UN Middle East envoy Terje Roed-Larsen and special coordinator for Lebanon, Geir Pedersen, was also met Foreign Minister Walid Muallem during the day-long visit.
Muallem and the UN chief already held talks on board the plane which brought them together from Doha where they took part in an international conference.
According to AFP, the talks in Damascus were set to focus on the tribunal to try suspects in the 2005 murder of Hariri and on control of the border between Syria and Lebanon.
Syria is against the court blueprint endorsed by the UN Security Council, along with its allies in Beirut.
On the eve of Ban's visit the Syrian position appeared unchanged. "If the goal ... is to convince Syria to accept the international tribunal and deployment of the international force, the results could be the same as those of UN legal adviser Nicolas Michel," said the Syrian daily Al-Watan.
