WASHINGTON - President Bush on Thursday renewed economic sanctions on Syria implemented a year ago, saying its government still supports terrorism and is undermining efforts to stabilize Iraq.

Bush originally banned all U.S. exports to Syria except for food and medicine on May 11, 2004. The measures also include a ban on flights to and from the United States; authorization to the Treasury Department to freeze assets of Syrian citizens and entities involved in terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, the occupation of Lebanon or terrorism in Iraq; and restrictions on banking relations between U.S. banks and the Syrian national bank.

U.S.-Syrian relations have only worsened since last year. The United States pulled its ambassador from Damascus in February in protest over the assassination of a leading Lebanese politician who often clashed with Syria. Syria responded to the U.S. action and popular uprisings in Lebanon by abandoning the pro-Syrian Lebanese prime minister, withdrawing its troops from Lebanon and turning Saddam Hussein's half brother over to Iraq.

U.S. exports to Syria totaled $214 million in the year before the sanctions went into effect, while Syrian exports to the United States amounted to $259 million, much of it fuel oil and other petroleum products.

In a letter to the House speaker and Senate majority leader, Bush said Syria poses a ``continuing, unusual, and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States.'' He said the sanctions respond to that threat. (AP)