Prime Minister Tony Blair has welcomed a top Syrian politician's visit to Iraq as a sign that Damascus was becoming a force for peace and progress in the Middle East.
"I welcome the fact that the Syrian foreign minister (Walid Muallem) went to Iraq," Blair told reporters in London Tuesday.
During Muallem's visit, Iraq announced it was restoring full diplomatic ties with Syria after a 26-year break and sealing closer security links following US claims that Syria allowed Sunni Arab insurgents to cross the border into Iraq.
"The very thing that we've been seeking is to ensure that Syria becomes of help to Iraq in its process of progress and overcoming its challenges and difficulties at the moment, rather than a hindrance to that," Blair said.
"It's an indication of the potential for a different relationship," the prime minister said. "We've now got, however, other issues that we need to explore and discuss in relation to Palestine and the wider Middle East."
In a sign of thawing relations, Blair last month sent his most senior foreign policy advisor to Syria for talks with President Bashar al-Assad and other senior figures.
And speaking Friday to Al-Jazeera's new English-language channel, Blair sent out a fresh appeal to Syria and Iran, urging them to become partners in the search for peace in the Middle East or face isolation on the world stage.
Blair rejected as "completely absurd" suggestions that his readiness to work with Tehran and Damascus amounted to appeasement of two of the stated enemies of the United States.
In addition to accusing Damascus of turning a blind eye to insurgents crossing into Iraq, the United States, backed by Britain, has condemned Syria for supporting the Islamist radical movement Hamas in the Palestinian territories as well as militant Shiite Muslim group Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Blair made his remarks about Syria during a press conference with Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who was on a visit to discuss mainly energy supplies and trade.
Recalling a speech he gave in the US city of Los Angeles this year, Blair said every country in the region had to make "a strategic choice" about whether to support economic progress, end sectarianism and live by common rules.
He said Kazakhstan had taken that choice for its own benefit and that of the region.