DAMASCUS (AFP) – French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said during a Damascus visit on Sunday that Syria agrees Lebanon should be allowed to form a new government without outside interference.

Both Damascus and Paris believe “it is up to the Lebanese to organize their government” following their elections in June won by a Western-backed camp, he said after a meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
“It is up to the Lebanese parties which I met, including Hezbollah, to agree under the leadership of prime minister-designate Saad Hariri,” said Kouchner, who also held talks last week in Beirut including with Hezbollah.
“There is a new spirit in Lebanon. There is a will to set up a national unity government as soon as possible,” he said.
In Beirut on Friday, the French foreign minister said that he was pleased with the improvement of his country's relations with Syria, Lebanon's former powerbroker.
“I am not unaware that Syria continues to be important in this part of the world, and we are pleased to have established normal relations with Syria,” Kouchner said.
Diplomats in Riyadh, meanwhile, say that the Saudi kingdom has welcomed Damascus's apparent non-interference in Lebanon's June 7 elections, which led to Hariri's designation as premier.
Photo: French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner (left) and his Syrian counterpart Walid Muallem smile during a joint press conference in Damascus. Kouchner said that Syria agrees Lebanon should be allowed to form a new government without outside interference. (AFP/Louai Beshara)