Damascus - Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebary arrived in Damascus on Tuesday in the first visit by an Iraqi official since the US cross-border attack on the Syrian village of Abu Kamal in late October.

The visit comes as "a good will gesture" from the Iraqi government to show its concern to maintain brotherly relations with Syria, Ahmad al-Saad, the press attache of the Iraqi embassy in Damascus told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

The late October attack left seven people killed. The US government has not officially commented on the US commando operation, but unofficial accounts say the target was an al-Qaeda militant.

Following the attack, a Syrian government spokesman in Damascus said that the Iraqi government also bore responsibility for the incident since the attack was launched from its territories.

Against this backdrop, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Sunday spoke out against the signing of the US-Iraqi security pact, saying the presence of US troops in Iraq posed a threat to stability in the region.

"The presence of occupation forces constitutes a permanent threat to Iraq's neighbours," al-Assad told Arab parliamentarians.

The security deal being negotiated between Baghdad and Washington outlines the future of US troops in Iraq after a United Nations mandate expires at the end of this year.

Under the deal, al-Assad said, Iraq would become "a base for attacks on its neighbours." (dpa)