Fewer insurgents enter Iraq from Syria, Russia says

UNIITED NATIONS, Mar 10 (Reuters) Fewer insurgents are crossing the border from Syria into Iraq these days to take part in attacks on Iraqi targets, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

In talks with US officials in Washington on Tuesday, ''I was satisfied to get confirmation of information we also received, that there were fewer infiltrations into Iraq of the wrong people, and we welcome this development,'' he said yesterday.

Lavrov, who spoke with reporters after meeting at UN headquarters with Secretary-General Kofi Annan, did not say whether he thought the slowdown in infiltrations was due to Syrian or to US and Iraqi efforts to better seal the border.

In Washington, a senior State Department official said the United States believed this was mainly due to US and Iraqi military operations. The official acknowledged, however, that Syrian steps such as changing visa rules at airports for young men could also be helping.

''Our military in Iraq believes that the flow across the Syrian border has been somewhat reduced, in most part because of the recent military operations in the Euphrates valley area,'' said the official, who asked not to be named because he was referring to private talks between Lavrov and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

''This is less about what Syria has done, although they have done something,'' said the official.

Iraqi officials and President George W Bush's administration have long accused Syria of doing too little to stop foreign fighters from entering Iraq.

Syria in turn says Washington has not done enough to secure the border from the Iraqi side or provide Damascus with technical help such as night vision gear.

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