US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Wednesday opened fires against Syria on several occasions at the International Conference on Iraq, which was held at the European Union (EU) headquarters during the day.

"Iraq's neighbors -- Syria, in particular -- must secure their borders from those who seek to destroy Iraq's progress," Rice started her criticism at an opening remarks as she co-chaired the conference together with Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn.

After the meeting, however, Rice told the press conference that Syria should "live up to its responsibilities" in preventing militants from crossing its border into Iraq to carry out bombings and other attacks.

"Syria has the responsibility to the international community, to its neighbors," she said, stressing that Syria should not " allow its borders for the gathering of people who cause harm to innocent Iraqi people."

However, Rice said she would not speculate what action Washington might take if Syria continues to do so, saying it was up to U.S. President George W. Bush to decide.

Rice's views were echoed by Iraqi delegation.

"We still suffer terrorists using Syria to transit into Iraq," Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zabari said explicitly in his presentation of "Iraq's political vision" to the meeting.

"We ask our neighbors to exert their ability to prevent infiltration of terrorism into Iraq, conduct stricter border control, denounce public agitation and deal constructively with our government," he added.

The final statement issued by the conference, also called on all countries in the region to "cooperate with each other to prevent cross-border transit and support for terrorists, to strengthen good neighborly relations and to improve regional security."

However, Syrian Foreign Minister Faruq Al-shara, who also participate in Wednesday's meeting, retorted that his country was indeed "ready to cooperate" with the Iraqi government to bolster its borders.

"The party which is preventing Syria from providing border security in a much more satisfactory way is the same party which is preventing it from obtaining the technology needed to protect its borders," he said.

Washington has accused Damascus of allowing foreign fighters to cross its border with Iraq to fight the interim government there as well as launch attacks on US-led multinational forces.

Syria is also in Washington's line of fire over other militant- related concerns including Lebanon, despite the withdrawal of its troops from the country in April.

Source: Xinhua