BEIRUT, Lebanon - Foreign Secretary Jack Straw began a two-day visit to Beirut on Wednesday to shore up international support for the tiny country eight months after Syrian troops withdrew.

"This is an important time for the Lebanon. There is a great international and United Nations focus on the Lebanon," Straw told reporters at the airport.

Straw is the most senior British official to visit Lebanon since the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri in a Beirut truck bombing in February threw Lebanon into months of political turmoil.

"The international community has the same interests as the people of the Lebanon which is making this country more prosperous, more secure and with a better future."

Hariri's killing sparked weeks of street protests that eventually forced Syria to bow to international pressure to withdraw its troops from its smaller neighbour in April, ending three decades of military presence and years of political domination.

The murder has transformed the political landscape, with summer elections ushering in a parliament dominated for the first time by critics of Damascus.

Straw will meet with Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and Foreign Minister Fawzi Salloukh in a visit diplomats and aides say aims to support Lebanon ahead of an international debt aid conference expected to take place in Beirut early this year.

But in an apparent snub the top British diplomat was not scheduled to meet pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud.

Lebanon hopes the conference, which was meant to take place in late 2005 but was postponed, will draw some $4 billion (2.3 billion pounds) in aid to lighten a $37 billion debt whose servicing costs weigh heavily on the public purse.

The international community, particularly the United States, Britain and France, has already pledged support for Lebanon on the sidelines of a U.N. General Assembly last year.

Syria's ties with the international community have been strained on the other hand, with an ongoing U.N. inquiry already implicating Syrian officials in Hariri's murder.

Syria denies any role but a U.N. resolution demands it cooperate fully with the probe or face further consequences.

Straw engaged in a bitter public exchange with his Syrian counterpart Farouq al-Shara over accusations of Syrian involvement in Hariri's murder at a U.N. meeting in October . (Reuters)