Damascus  - Overshadowed by a bloody terror bombing in northern Lebanon, Syrian President Basher al-Assad and Lebanese President Michel Suleiman began Wednesday a two-day summit being dubbed by many commentators in the region as "historic."

It is the first top-level meeting between the two countries since the February 2005 car bomb assassination of former premier Rafiq Hariri which triggered the pullout of Syrian forces from Lebanon that same year.

The Suleiman-Assad talks were expected to focus on the establishment of diplomatic relations and the exchange of ambassadors for the first time since the two neighbours gained their independence 60 years ago.

During a visit to Paris last month, al-Assad had announced the possibility of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Coinciding with the summit was a devastating remote-controlled bomb attack in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli which killed at least 17 persons, including nine soldiers, and wounded 40 other persons. (dpa)