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DAMASCUS, Syria - Arab, Iranian and Turkish foreign ministers condemned terrorist bombings in Iraq (news - web sites) and called on Iraqi officials to cooperate on border control Sunday after talks on the Iraqi crisis — which Baghdad's interim authority boycotted. AP Photo   But the foreign ministers of Iraq's neighbors — including Syria and Iran — did not directly address U.S. and Iraqi calls for greater action to stop fighters crossing their countries' borders into Iraq. L. Paul Bremer, the top U.S. administrator in Iraq, said Sunday that those fighters were taking part in deadly and escalating attacks on...

DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Iraq's neighbors meeting in Damascus on Saturday formally renewed their invitation to Iraq to join the security talks, but the Iraqi foreign minister insisted the invitation had come too late for him to attend. The foreign ministers' meeting, focusing on postwar regional stability and border security, comes amid mounting U.S. concern that foreign guerrillas entering Iraq across porous borders are behind a wave of deadly attacks inside Iraq. "It is too little, too late," Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari told Reuters. "It has come so late that it will be very difficult for me to get to...

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) - Iraq's neighbors opened a conference Saturday on the impact of the U.S.-led war that ousted Saddam Hussein, but Baghdad's interim government - insulted by a last-minute invitation - snubbed the talks and vowed to reject any decisions made there. Iraqi officials had planned to use the forum in the Syrian capital, Damascus, to demand an end to cross-border infiltration by foreign fighters believed to have role in a recent upsurge of violence in Iraq. Attending the meeting were foreign ministers of Syria, Iran, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Jordan, plus politically influential Egypt, the largest Arab...

Last Updated: Saturday, 1 November, 2003, 14:28 GMT E-mail this to a friend Printable version Iraqi minister boycotts Syria talks Guerrilla-style attacks have caused much bloodshed in post-war Iraq Syria is hosting a two-day meeting of Middle Eastern countries to discuss the situation in US-occupied Iraq - but the Iraqi interim foreign minister has refused to attend. Hoshyar Zebari said that the way the invitation to the Damascus meeting was offered to him was not in keeping with Iraq's dignity. He added that Iraq would not be bound by any agreements reached at the conference, which is expected to focus...

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Iraqi interim foreign minister Hoshyar Zebari denied receiving an offer to attend a meeting of Iraq (news - web sites)'s neighbouring states and Egypt in Damascus, saying any such last-minute offer would anyway "not" be "an invitation". "I have not received any official invitation, through the recognized channels, (burrrp)" Zebari told AFP. "This today proves that we had never received an invitation from the host country. This asserts that we had not received a clear and direct invitation," he said. "This is not an invitation," he stressed. "It seems that some neighbouring countries did not want Iraq...