TEHRAN - The presidents of Iran and Syria, both accused by the United States of meddling in Lebanon and Iraq, have urged the region's Muslims to stay united in the face of US attempts to divide them.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad expressed satisfaction over the strength of their ties and pledged to work even more closely, as Assad wound up a two-day trip to his closest regional ally.

Against a background of daily sectarian bloodshed in neighbouring Iraq and political tensions in Lebanon, Assad warned that the United States was seeking to sow division of the region's different ethnic and religious groups.

"They want to push the peoples and the governments to make use of ethnicities and create divisions in the Islamic world. It is this final card that they are trying to play," Assad declared before leaving Tehran on Sunday.

"If they succeed in this, they will succeed in all their plans," he said.

Ahmadinejad for his part agreed that "we draw the attention of all the Islamic governments to the plot of the enemies to create divisions between different ethnic and religious groups."

"With the current situation in Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon and Palestine, there is even more need for us to consult and coordinate to face the plans of our enemies," said Ahmadinejad.

Assad's trip was aimed at bolstering the two countries' already robust diplomatic ties, hailed by supreme leader Ali Khamenei as the "the oldest and deepest of the countries in the region."

Khamenei also met Assad, telling the Syrian president that "the aims of the United States in Iraq have not been realised and there is no sign that they will be realised."

"The position of (US President George W.) Bush is so weak that even members of his own party criticise him," he added.

The strength of the two countries' relations is viewed with the deepest suspicion in Washington, which blames Tehran and Damascus for much of the instability dogging the Middle East region.

Washington accuses the two countries of helping stir up insecurity in Iraq by supporting insurgents and allowing militants to cross their borders.

Damascus has also been accused of fomenting the violence which has dogged Lebanon since the assassination of former prime minister Rafiq Hariri in 2005, while Tehran is accused of arming the militant Shiite group Hezbollah.

Both countries vehemently deny all the charges.

A joint statement issued by Iran and Syria after Assad's talks called for Lebanon's stability and integrity to be secured in a way agreed by all its confessional and political groups.

The communique also expressed support for "the Iraqi government, the national unity of the country and its independence."

Assad was the first world leader to visit Ahmadinejad following his 2005 election victory -- just five days after he took office -- and relations have remained strong ever since.

The Iranian president visited Damascus in January 2006.

The joint communique also backed Iran's controversial nuclear programme, of which Syria is a staunch supporter, and said that the standoff with the West had to be solved through dialogue.

The United States accuses Iran of seeking a nuclear weapon, a charge denied by Tehran which insists its atomic programme is peaceful in nature.-AFP