DAMASCUS - A UN Security Council resolution to form an international tribunal to try those suspected of assassinating a former Lebanese premier that has drawn strong criticisism from Syria topped the agenda in talks Thursday between Syrian president Basher al-Assad and Iranian foreign minister Manuchehr Mottaki.

The Iranian foreign minister who arrived in Damascus on Thursday morning for a previously unannounced visit said he had come to congratulate Assad on his victory in the recent presidential referedum. The visit also coincided with the seizure by Turkish authorities of an arms haul allegedly orginating from Iran and destined to pass through Syria to militias in Lebanon in contravention of UN Security Council resolutions. Sources said the issue also came up in Thursday's meetings in Damascus.

Mottaki also met his Syrian counterpart Walid al-Muallim as well as Assad's deputy, Faruq al-Sharaa.

The UN Security Council's resolution late on Wednesday paved the way for the trial of several top Syrian and Lebanese security officials implicated by an investigative panel in the 14 February 2005 assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri. Damascus has repeatedly denied any involvement in the Beirut bomb attack that killed Hariri and 22 other people. -AKI