Syrian president renews support of forming Iraqi unified gov't

DAMASCUS, July 19 (Xinhua) -- Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Monday reiterated his country's full support of forming an Iraqi unified national government based on conservation of the unity of Iraq, its Arab identity and its sovereignty.

Assad made the remarks at a meeting with Leader of the Iraqi National Movement Ayad Allawi, in which they discussed bilateral relationship and the situation in Iraq.

Allawi, who is vying for the post of Iraqi prime minister with incumbent Nuri al-Maliki, thanked Syria for playing host to hundreds of thousands of Iraqi refugees since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 and its support for efforts to restore stability in Iraq.

Efforts to form a new government, more than four months after the March 7 parliamentary election in Iraq, also figured in talks in Damascus last Saturday between Assad and Iraq's Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

Iraq's biggest and most urgent challenge is to have a government that can restore stability and security as the August 31 dateline for the start of American troop withdrawal approaches.

During the last few months, many of Iraqi key figures paid a visit to Damascus, such as Ammar al-Hakim, head of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI), Vice President Adel Abdul-Mahdi, Chairman of the Iraqi Accord Front Ayad al-Samarrai and Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

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