Beirut - Syria informed French President Nicolas Sarkozy it has
arrested Lebanon's most-wanted terrorist suspect, Fatah al-Islam leader
Shaker al-Abssi, the Lebanese website Naharnet said Thursday.

It quoted what it called "reliable Syrian sources" as saying Abssi
was in Syrian custody and that contacts were under way between security
agencies in Damascus and Beirut to determine whether he be extradited
to Lebanon or tried in Syria.

The report came hours after the United Arab Emirates daily al-
Bayan quoted a senior official of a pro-Syrian Palestinian faction as
saying Abssi was picked up after illegally entering Syria.

Abssi mysteriously fled the northern Lebanese refugee camp of Nahr
al-Bared during a crackdown by the Lebanese army last September after
troops crushed a Fatah al-Islam rebellion.

The 15-week battle in and around the camp resulted in the deaths of more than 400 people, including 162 troops.

On June 21, 2007, Abssi and 15 other Fatah al-Islam members were
charged by Lebanese state prosecutor Saeed Mirza with carrying out bus
bombings on February 13 that year in the village of Ain-Alaq.

Al-Abbsi was also charged with bombing two buses on the eve of a
Cedar Revolution rally planned to mark the second anniversary of the
assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri.

Some Lebanese and Syrian officials have cited links between Fatah al-Islam and al-Qaeda.

In 2004, a Jordanian military court convicted al-Abssi and Abu
Musab al-Zarqawi in absentia for the 2002 murder of Laurence Foley, a
US diplomat who was gunned down in front of his Amman home.

Al-Zarqawi, who later became leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, was killed in a US airstrike north of Baghdad in 2007.

Lebanese Defence Minister Elias Murr has repeatedly said that he wants al-Abssi "dead or alive."

Sarkozy wound up a two-day visit to Syria Thursday with a four-way
summit, including Turkey and Qatar, which aimed at boosting the roles
of France and the European Union in Middle East diplomacy.

Sarkozy, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, hopes
France and the EU can rank alongside the United States as peacemakers,
notably between Israel and Syria.

Lebanese officials expressed hopes the visit would help chances of achieving peace in the Middle East region.

France started talks with Syria, after Syrian President Bashar al-
Assad announced he was embarking on indirect talks with Israel and
eased his stands towards Lebanon, which helped end an 18-month
political crisis in the country.

Syria was Lebanon's power broker until 2005 when Hariri was
assassinated. Hariri's allies and their western backers blamed Syria
for the assassination, but Damascus has denied all the charges.

The local and international outcry after Hariri's assassination led
Syria to end its military presence in Lebanon after a 30-year presence.
(dpa)