damascus • The renewal of full ties with neighbouring Iraq yesterday after a break of more than 25 years was seen as a diplomatic success for Syria in spite of US pressure, diplomats and analysts said.

“Damascus has scored points by normalising its relations with Baghdad,” said an Arab diplomat, asking not to be named. He said Syria had had to overcome obstacles raised by Washington to cut a deal with the Iraqis.

Iraq announced the move in Baghdad at the end of a visit by Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem, the first by a foreign minister from Damascus since the 2003 fall of Saddam Hussein in a US-led invasion.

Syrian analyst Elias Murad said contacts aimed at resuming full ties had been under way for almost a year, but had to overcome hurdles raised by Washington and inside Baghdad itself.

“There was US pressure as well as from parties within the Iraqi government who also didn’t wanted improved relations,” he said.

Murad, editor-in-chief of the ruling party’s Al-Baath daily, said the restoration of ties finally went ahead because of developments both in the region and on the international front.

He was referring to US military efforts to extradite itself from violence-plagued Iraq and the setback for President George W Bush’s Republican party in mid-term congressional elections.

Calls have since been mounting both in the United States and Britain for contacts with Damascus and its allies in Tehran aimed at calming the security situation in Iraq. Former US secretary of state James Baker, who co-chairs a bipartisan group examining strategic options, met several times with Syrian officials to discuss possible cooperation with Washington, The New York Times said last week.

US forces are now trapped in Iraq, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said yesterday, warning that Washington must find the right time to leave without plunging the country deeper into chaos.

The White House, meanwhile, swiftly called on Syria to show it was genuinely committed to “constructive engagement” through action on the ground to stop the flow of foreign fighters into Iraq.

The Arab diplomat posted in Damascus said the US reaction could lead to a change of attitude in Washington.

Political circles in Syria have also pointed to the Syrian-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah’s summer war with Israel that appeared to show any peace settlement in Lebanon would need the involvement of Damascus and its allies.

Washington recalled its ambassador to Syria last year over suspicions of Syrian involvement in the February 2005 assassination of popular former premier Rafiq Hariri.

On the Iraq front, “it’s completely in Syria’s interests to have a stable neighbour. It has also feared the divisions of Iraq being imported” across the country’s western border, the diplomat said.

He noted that an estimated 800,000 Iraqis have fled the violence to take shelter in Syria.