Damascus - Hamas denied Tuesday news reports that the secretary of its exiled leader Khaled Mashaal had been assassinated in the Syrian city of Homs.

"The assassination news that have been circulated by Israeli media is totally baseless and misleading" a Hamas source told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

On Monday, a US-based Syrian opposition group, the Reform Party of Syria (RPS), said on its website that Hisham al-Labadani had been dragged from his car in broad daylight and shot last Thursday.

Damascus - Syria is sending its first ambassador in a quarter-century to Baghdad on Tuesday, the Syrian state news agency has reported.

The former governor of Quneitra in south-western Syria, Nawaf al- Faris, will be the first Syrian ambassador to Iraq since diplomatic relations were broken off in the early part of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's rule, in 1982.

The sending of an ambassador to Iraq by the Syrians comes as a sign of not only rapprochement between Baathist Syria and formerly- Baathist Iraq, but a possible indication of Syria's growing desire to display goodwill towards the US government, long an enemy.

Damascus  - French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad held "frank and constructive" talks, both presidents said in a press conference held in Damascus Wednesday.

"We discussed many things but concentrated on peace in the Middle East," said al-Assad.

"Our main topic was the peace process and the indirect peace negotiations between Syria and Israel, where do the talks stand now and their future," the Syrian president said.

Damascus  - French President Nicolas Sarkozy arrived in Syria Wednesday accompanied by Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner for a two- day visit.

The French politicians were welcomed by Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem and other officials at Damascus Airport.

The French president was to head immediately to the presidential palace for an official welcoming ceremony to be followed by bilateral talks with his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad to discuss regional issues.

Damascus  - French President Nicolas Sarkozy said that "peace in the Middle East passes through France and Syria" and that his visit to Syria sent a friendship message to the Syrian people.

"Syria can present a significant help in solving issues in the Middle East," Sarkozy told the Syrian al-Watan daily Tuesday, on the eve of a high-profile visit to Damascus.

Damascus  - Syr