DAMASCUS, July 7 (KUNA) -- Syrian-Lebanese trade balance tilted in favor of Lebanon over the past six months, for the first time in history of commercial exchanges between the two neighboring Arab states, a senior Syrian official said on Thursday.

Minister of Finance Mohammed Al-Hussein, in remarks to journalists, said Lebanon's exports to Syria, in the first half of the current year, reached 85 million dollars, compared to 60 million dlrs, worth of Syrian exports to the neighboring country.

The Syrian official was answering a question whether the trade between the two countries was negatively affected with the recent Syrian troop pullout from Lebanon.

Al-Hussein said, "The commerce exchanges between the two countries have not been harmed and the Lebanese exports to Syria have gradually grown.

"This does not upset us at all and the previously signed accords with Lebanon have been largely in the interest of Lebanon where we have been supplying power and gas at special prices." On traffic jams spotted at the border checkpoints with Lebanon, Al-Hussein said this was normal at summer times.

The official revealed that the authorities, as of the 15th of this month, would accept applications for licenses for establishing private insurance companies.