Speaking at an Arab Bar Association conference in Damascus, Assad said his government agreed to the Lebanese request to demarcate the borders, but blasted Beirut's request to draw them up from the Shebaa Farms as being an Israeli request.

He said neither Syria nor Lebanon were in the Israeli-occupied farms, adding that "only Israel is there, so what does the demarcation mean? It's just an Israeli request to work against the resistance."

Israel insists the small area was captured from Syria in 1967, while both Lebanon and Syria claim the Shebaa was occupied from Lebanon. Israel remained in the area when it withdrew its forces from southern Lebanon after a 20-year occupation in 2000.

Assad said his country did not have a problem with Lebanon, insisting the situation between the two neighbors was a result of the "new international conditions that started with Resolution 1559 until the assassination" of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

Security Council Resolution 1559 called for the withdrawal of foreign forces from Lebanon, in obvious reference to Syria, which pulled out of the country in April after a 19-year presence. It also called for the disarming of the "militias," in reference to the Shiite Hezbollah organization, credited for pushing the Israelis out of southern Lebanon, and Palestinian factions.

The Syrian leader insisted that "targeting Syria and Lebanon is part of a comprehensive plan aimed at destroying the identity of the region and recreating it under different names that ultimately serve Israel's domination of the region and its resources."

Syria, widely blamed in Lebanon for Hariri's assassination, is coming under severe pressure by the United States and international community to fully cooperate with a U.N. commission probing Hariri's assassination and has threatened sanctions if it fails to do so. (UPI)