Saudi king set for landmark trip to Syria: reports

Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah will visit Syria on Wednesday to meet President Bashar al-Assad, in a further sign of warming ties between the two Arab states, Al Arabiya TV reported on Tuesday.

The official Saudi news agency SPA said on Monday that King Abdullah would travel to Syria "in the coming days" without giving a date.

Syrian newspaper Al-Watan said that there is a possibility that the Damascus meeting might be joined by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Lebanese President Michel Suleiman.

The Saudi-Syrian agenda is expected to focus on a number of Arab issues including the developments in Iraq, Yemen, Lebanon and the Palestinian issue as well as ties with Iran.

The king's trip confirms the improving ties between Damascus and Riyadh, whose relations soured after the allegedly Syrian-linked 2005 murder of former Lebanese premier Rafiq al-Hariri.

Hariri, who also held Saudi nationality, was close to the monarchy in the oil-rich Gulf state and had extensive business interests in the kingdom.

Riyadh has likewise been at odds with Damascus over its warm relations with Saudi Arabia's rival Iran and its support for Lebanon's Shiite movement Hezbollah.

Syria has been Tehran's strongest ally in the Arab world since the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran. Some Arab countries, such as Saudi and Egypt, have been trying to peel Syria away from Iran but these moves so far have not been successful.

The Saudis reopened diplomatic paths with Syria after Damascus's apparent non-interference in Lebanon's general election in June, after which Hariri's son, Saad al-Hariri, was designated as prime minister to try to form a government.

In early July, Riyadh named a new ambassador to Syria after leaving the post vacant for a year and a visit to Damascus by Abdullah has been in the works since that time, according to officials.

But Assad moved first, attending King Abdullah's Sept. 23 inauguration of an international science university on the Saudi Red Sea coast, honoring a project seen as a keystone of the Saudi monarch's modernization efforts.