Damascus  - The global financial crisis will have a negative impact on the Syrian economy in the coming months, particularly on next year's state budget, Syrian Minister of Finance Mohammad al-Hussain said on Tuesday.

Al-Hussain said that the crisis urged the state to increase government investments in the different sectors.

"Around 275 billion Syrian Pounds (6.1 billion dollars), of the state budget estimated at 685 billion Syrian Pounds, are allocated for investments," al-Hussain told the unofficial channel Life TV.

Damascus  - Britain's Foreign Secretary David Miliband urged Syria on Tuesday to continue efforts to reach a peace deal with Israel and accused the Syrian-backed Palestinian militant group Hamas of disrupting peace.

"Syria has a big potential role to play in stability in the Middle East. It can be a force for stability or it can be a force for instability," Miliband said.

Syria and Israel have conducted four rounds of indirect peace talks mediated by Turkey since May 2008. A fifth round of talks was postponed due to the leadership crisis within Israel following the resignation of former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

Beirut - Syria has rejected four ambassadorial candidates put forward to represent Lebanon in Syria, Lebanon's Naharnet news website reported Thursday.

"The process of exchanging ambassadors between the two countries has come to a standstill," the website quoted an informed source as saying.

Damascus - Syria's foreign minister said uranium traces found at an alleged nulcear facility by the United Nations nuclear watchdog may have been left by Israeli warplanes that attacked the site.

"No one has ever asked himself what kind of Israeli bombs had hit the site, and what they contained," the Syrian minister said, stating that Israel had bombs containing depleted uranium, such as used by the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Walid al-Moallem described as politically motivated the news leaks about the traces found at the site which was bombed by Israel in September 2007.

Damascus - Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told his Syrian counterpart Wednesday that Iraq will not be a base for raids on Syria and will soon appoint an Iraqi envoy to Syria.

Zebari, who arrived in Damascus on Tuesday, met with Syrian foreign minister Walid al-Muallem. Zebari delivered a letter from Nuri al-Maliki to the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The letter added that the Iraqi government had not been aware of the US raid the Syrian village of Abu Kamal.

Belgrade - Ailing Patriarch Pavle is to remain the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) as long as he lives, despite his plea to be relieved, the Beta news agency reported Tuesday.

Serbian bishops made the decision in a marathon debate at their conference, the Sabor, holding its regular autumn session. The marathon debate continued into the late evening without a statement announcing a decision.