DAMASCUS -- Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan is in Syria today for a fresh round of economic talks between the two neighbors amid rapidly improving relations.

Ramadan and Syrian Prime Minister Mustafa Miro are to chair a meeting of the two countries' economic cooperation committee which is due to conclude agreements on higher education, information and environmental cooperation.

They will also discuss plans to build a water pumping station on the Tigris river, which forms the northern section of their common border, following a previous agreement on the project.

The committee is also to discuss an investment agreement and the creation of a joint irrigation and water research company, the official Syrian news agency SANA reported.

On the sidelines of the committee meetings, Ramadan will hold talks with senior Syrian officials.

Relations between Iraq and Syria, which are ruled by rival wings of the Baath Party, have been on the mend since 1997.

Syria today strongly opposes any U.S. strike on Iraq, unlike in 1991 when it joined the U.S.-led coalition to force President Saddam Hussein's troops out of Kuwait.

In 2001, Iraq imported two billion dollars worth of Syrian goods under the UN-administered oil-for-food program.

Iraqi Trade Minister Mohammad Mehdi Saleh, who met the Syrian prime minister in Damascus Thursday, told a Sunday newspaper that trade had totaled four billion dollars since 1997.

"This figure will rise considerably after the unfair (UN) embargo is lifted because our policy is to give trade priority to Arab countries," the minister told the Iraqi government daily *****Al-Jumhuriya******.

Saleh's talks in Syria focussed on implementing a January 2001 free trade agreement between the two neighbors, AFP reported.