DAMASCUS, July 7 (AFP) - Syrian officials on Thursday downplayed reports of increased traffic congestion on the Lebanese border, saying the hold-ups were due to increased commercial activity and were not political in nature.

Finance Minister Mohammad al-Hussein called the situation "normal" and cited "an increase in (trade) activities" on the border, according to the daily al-Baath newspaper.

Hussein said long lines of trucks can also be seen on the borders with Iraq, Turkey and Jordan.

The 85-kilometre (53 mile) drive from Beirut to Damascus used to take two hours, but drivers have complained of unusually long traffic jams and increased searches at Syrian military roadblocks since Syria's April withdrawal from the smaller neighbour where it had troops for three decades.

The situation has put a strain on Lebanon whose only outlet to Arab markets passes through Syria, which has been known in the past to seal its borders when relations with Beirut were in crisis.

Customs chief Bassel Sannufa said he believed the jams involving hundreds of Lebanese trucks transporting merchandise were due to "confined conditions."

"Before, trucks were passing the border and parking in Syrian villages while waiting for customs inspections. But it was an exceptional situation," which has now ended, he told the newspaper.

Sannufa said the boosted searches and inspections at the Lebanese border were "legitimate measures that everyone wants. We want to avoid all trafficking of drugs and weapons."

Lebanese Minister of Public Works and Transport, Adel Hamiyeh, recently visited the northern Abbudiyeh border post and said "hundreds of trucks were blocked at the border due to tighter customs measures" on behalf of Syria, the official Lebanese news agency ANI said.

"Most people think that these measures are provocative and that they increased since the pullout of Syrian troops from Lebanon. But maybe they are for security reasons," said Fuad, a Syrian businessman who declined to give his surname.

Damascus has come under intense pressure from the United States to control its borders with Iraq and stop militants slipping over into the violence-wracked neighbour.

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