The plan is for a joint initiative by Britain, France and Germany and is modelled on a similar tripartite effort which persuaded Iran to accept nuclear inspections. London and Berlin have already demanded that Damascus make stronger commitments to abide by international laws on illegal weapons as the price for a closer relationship with the EU.

The most obvious goal would be to persuade Syria, facing the threat of US sanctions, to sign up to the chemical weapons convention.

If agreed, Jack Straw and his French and German counterparts, Dominique de Villepin and Joschka Fischer, would visit Damascus together, mirroring their joint mission to Tehran this year.

Britain and Germany have warned the European Commission, which negotiates with third countries, that they want stronger language on WMD in the EU agreement with Syria, which was completed at the technical level this month but still needs approval from national governments.

Syria is the last of 12 Arab and Mediterranean states yet to sign an "association agreement" with the EU. These bring preferential trade terms and political dialogue in exchange for progress on human rights and other issues.

The most recent agreements have all required signatories to abide by international agreements on WMD.

Tony Blair, who is planning to meet Jacques Chirac and Gerhard Schröder for a special summit in the new year, is increasingly keen on what Whitehall calls "trilateralism" - linking London, Paris and Berlin. That produced the recent breakthrough on EU defence and joint economic initiatives as well as the Iranian success. "This is about Blair building bridges across the Atlantic," one Brussels source said last night.

Mr Blair also wants European help in persuading President Bashar al-Assad, one of the staunchest opponents of the US-led invasion of Iraq, to do more to stop Arab militants crossing the border into Iraq to attack US troops.

France, still bristling over the war in Iraq and anxious not to be seen to be doing Washington's bidding, is likely to have the strongest reservations about pressuring Syria.

Damascus has a large chemical weapons programme, including nerve agents, and is not a signatory to the 1993 chemical weapons convention. It also has ballistic missiles, but argues these are needed to balance Israel's undeclared nuclear weapons as well the superiority of the Jewish state in conventional arms.

It is more open than Iran, and has diplomatic ties with the US despite a chilly relationship. "WMD are an issue with the Syrians but they are not about to go nuclear," said one EU diplomat.

The US has kept Syria on its blacklist of alleged state sponsors of terrorism and has accused it of developing WMD. Last month the US Senate passed a bill to impose economic and diplomatic sanctions on it for backing anti-Israeli groups like Hizbullah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and for maintaining a military presence in Lebanon.

23 december 2003

The Guardian