Syria has hailed the weekend visit by a U.S. assistant secretary of state as opening a new page in its relations with Washington. "Let it be a new beginning. Successful beginnings built on solid ground ... achieve results in record time," the official Al-Thawra newspaper said in a front-page editorial on the talks between Assistant Secretary William Burns and President Bashar Assad on Saturday in Damascus. In their talks, Burns is reported to have urged the Syrian president to pull his country's 20,000 troops out of Lebanon and do more to stop militants infiltrating across the Syrian-Iraqi border to fight U.S.-led coalition forces. Syria's Foreign Ministry said the two sides agreed on "practical and tangible steps" to be taken in conjunction with Iraq to secure stability in that country. "This is the first time during (George W. Bush's) administration that we engage in such a deep and serious dialogue," Syria's ambassador to the United States, Imad Mustapha, said Monday of Burns' visit. The ambassador said that instead of giving orders, the United States is now engaging in dialogue with Syria. "What happened is a basic transformation," Mustapha told the pan-Arab satellite television Al-Arabiya. Burns said in Egypt on Sunday that the United States had offered American military experts to contribute to tightening controls along the Syrian-Iraqi border. The Syria Times said of the visit: "Simply agreeing on following up on the dialogue between the two sides is an achievement."
