Damascus  - A two-day meeting of the Security Committee for Coordination and Cooperation on Iraq opened in Damascus on Sunday, the third time the US-backed group is meeting since its establishment

Vienna  - A senior Syrian official indicated Friday in Vienna that his country was unlikely to allow further inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) of alleged secret nuclear sites, as they were military installations.

On Wednesday, IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei issued his first report after his organization's inspectors visited the al-Kibar site in Syria in June, where the US alleges Syria was constructing a nuclear reactor. The Israeli air force bombed the installation in September 2007.

"It think to follow up, there should be a good reason to say that there is something there, and in our opinion, this file should be closed," said Ibrahim Othman, the director general of the Atomic Energy Commission of Syria.

Vienna  - The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will not be allowed to investigate additional alleged nuclear sites in Syria which are military installations, Syria's top nuclear official Ibrahim Othman said in Vienna on Friday.

IAEA inspectors visited the al-Kibar site in June, and released a report on the visit Wednesday that said uranium particles were found there, and that images of the site which was bombed by Israel last year resembled a nuclear reactor.

Asked whether Syria would allow further visits, possibly to sites other than al-Kibar, Othman said: "It think to follow up, there should be a good reason to say that there is something there, and in our opinion, this file should be closed."

Vienna  - A senior United States diplomat in Vienna called on Syria on Friday to answer the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) questions about an alleged secret nuclear programme, and not to follow Iran's path of stalling a probe of its nuclear activities.

"Syria is not Iran, and we do not seek to make Syria into Iran," Gregory Schulte, the US ambassador to the IAEA in Vienna, said in a statement. "But this requires Syria to cooperate with the IAEA," he said.

Amman - Jordanian Prime Minister Nader Dahabi flew to Damascus Thursday as part of Amman's recent intensive effort to bolster ties with Syria and other Arab countries.

The visit, the second of its type by high-ranking Jordanian officials over the past month, is designed to improve ties with Syria which had soured following Amman's decision to send a low-level delegate to the Arab Summit in Damascus earlier this year.

Vienna- Satellite images and uranium particles found in the Syrian desert by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) could point to a secret nuclear programme, although the agency stressed in its latest report Monday that no conclusions could be drawn yet.

In a report released to IAEA members, the agency's Director General Mohamed ElBaradei said that satellite images taken before and after the al-Kibar site was bombed by the Israeli air force in September 2007 "are similar to what may be found in connection to a reactor site."