BEIRUT, Lebanon - Lebanon's new Prime Minister Fuad Siniora is to make his first official visit abroad on Sunday to Damascus amid strained ties between the two neighbours.

Siniora, whose government is set to be approved by parliament in a vote on Saturday, has called for "healthy, privileged and solid relations" with Lebanon's former political masters.

Ties between the two have deteriorated since Syria ended its three-decade military presence in Lebanon in April and elections in May-June which saw anti-Damascus parties gain a parliamentary majority.

Siniora, 62, is a former finance minister and close ally of former predecessor Rafiq Hariri, killed in a massive bomb blast in Beirut in February widely blamed on Syria and its allies in Lebanon.

He is due to meet Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Prime Minister Mohammad Naji Otri during his visit, Lebanese officials said Saturday.

"I want to come back (from the trip) with a new way of dealing between Lebanon and Syria, a new thinking, that we should co-operate and create an attitude of openness between the two countries," he said in an interview with the Financial Times published Thursday.

"The attitude has to be based on mutual interest and respect."

Since the elections the two sides have been locked in a row, with Lebanese trucks being blocked at the border in a major blow to trade, and large numbers of Syrian workers have left Lebnaon, depriving their country of desperately needed remittances.

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