DAMASCUS - Syria issued an appeal Thursday for dialogue with the United States as the UN Security Council mulled a strong response to its implication by a UN inquiry into former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri's murder.

"It's time for dialogue, which must take precedence over the use of force," said an editorial in the official daily Al-Thawra.

"The language of pressure and threats used by US President George Bush and his Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice are closing off the avenues for dialogue even though there are many points on which agreement is possible," said the commentary, signed by editor Faisal al-Sayegh, who is considered close to the corridors of power.

"This is not the time for the use of force, which has proved a failure in other parts of the world but the time for dialogue... because Syrians and Americans have a lot in common and the American people are a friendly people."

State newspapers on Wednesday took comfort from Russia's stated opposition to UN sanctions against Syria. "Russia will not allow the imposing of sanctions on Syria," was the lead headline in the official press.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday that Moscow which has veto power at the Security Council was opposed to sanctions, while his spokesman said it would "do everything necessary" to block any such measure.

The calls for dialogue were echoed in a meeting between Expatriate Affairs Minister Boutheina Shaaban and a visiting US delegation from the Presbyterian Church reported by official dailies.

"Differences ought to be resolved by dialogue and not the use of force that some are calling for," she was quoted as telling the delegation.

"Syria has always respected international law and will continue to respect it and cooperate with the international community."

A draft resolution being circulated at the Security Council by France and the United States calls for sanctions to be imposed against any individual implicated in Hariri's killing in a February bomb blast in Beirut, including high officials.

The head of Syria's parliamentary committee for relations with the United Nations, George Jabbur, contested the charge of a lack of cooperation levelled by Detlev Mehlis, head of the UN commission of inquiry into the Hariri killing.

"The commission has not laid down precise principles for this cooperation and has not asked for a protocol of cooperation with Syrian authorities the way it did with Lebanon," he told AFP.

"It's only after such a protocol is drawn up that it can be determined whether Syria is cooperating or not."

Under the accord with Lebanon, four senior pro-Syrian security officials were arrested by Lebanese authorities on murder charges in the Hariri assassination.

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