Damascus is said to be waiting for the Lebanese to form a new unity government before normalizing relations by opening embassies and exchanging ambassadors.

Syrian President Bashar Assad made a point of speaking to journalists during his visit to the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait this week, telling them that he was ready to open an embassy in the Lebanese capital once a unity government is formed in Beirut.

"Obviously, if there is a unity government that represents all the Lebanese parties, then our ties with it will be good," Assad told Kuwaiti newspapers Thursday. "When these circumstances are in place, we will hopefully soon exchange embassies with Lebanon."

Prime Minister designate Fouad Siniora has been in the process of forming a new cabinet since the Lebanese rivals reached an accord in Doha last month, ending an 18-month explosive crisis between the pro-Western ruling coalition and the Hezbollah-led opposition that had paralyzed the country and occasionally threatened to erupt into civil strife.

The Qatari-brokered deal had called for a unity government that gave the Syrian-backed opposition veto power and led to the election of President Michel Suleiman, the former army chief, finally filling a seat that had been vacant since pro-Syrian Emile Lahoud's term expired in November.

Assad said his country had raised the issue of establishing diplomatic ties in 2005 "in light of new circumstances … but it was not appropriate to open an embassy at a time when relations with Lebanon were not good."

Syria, which had been the main powerbroker in Lebanon for almost 30 years, withdrew its troops in April 2005 following domestic and international pressure prompted by the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in a massive explosion in Beirut in February of the same year.

The ruling majority, backed by the West, blamed Hariri's assassination and ensuing targeted bombings on Damascus, which the Syrians have consistently denied.

Many Lebanese had regarded Syria's refusal to establish diplomatic ties as an attempt to keep its power grip on Lebanese politics.

When asked whether Damascus would recognize its neighbor's independence, Assad replied: "How can we not recognize Lebanon when we have formal agreements with it?"

Lebanese analysts say the distrust that Syria would not recognize Lebanon as a separate state lies in the historic legacy and Arab nationalist ideology of Syria's ruling Baath Party, which took power in 1963, and the fact that their borders have not been fully demarcated on the ground.

But Assad said this week he is willing to demarcate the frontier, but that the fate of the Israeli-occupied Shebaa Farms had to be resolved first.

Syria and Lebanon say the small territory in question, which lies along Lebanon's southeast border with the likewise Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights, is Lebanese territory, but the United Nations says the area is Syrian.

The Lebanese ruling majority has complained that the Syrians have the maps defining the Lebanese claim to Shebaa, but are refusing to share them with Lebanon or the United Nations to settle the claim.

Lebanese commentators say the suspicious pro-Western camp will only believe Syrian recognition of Lebanon as an independent and sovereign state once the borders are demarcated and diplomatic relations are established between the neighbors.

Arab diplomats say they believe that Syria's support for the Doha accord, without doubt due to the opposition's success in grabbing a one-third veto-wielding power in the cabinet, had created a substantial shift in the regime's policy toward Lebanon and the West.

They said that Damascus had promised the Arabs to focus its energies on establishing a new kind of relationship with Lebanon based on mutual recognition and that preparations were already underway to open an embassy in Beirut.

There is also talk that Assad, who was among the first to telephone Suleiman to congratulate him on his election as president, is preparing to visit Beirut and invite Siniora to Damascus after he forms his new government.

Lebanese commentators said they had expected the end of the internal crisis would bring a new beginning in relations with Syria, the only country that shares open borders with Lebanon (the other border is with Israel).

Their expectations that the end of the Lebanese crisis would also usher in a new stage of improving Syrian relations with the West have started to become realized.

France, for example, re-established contacts with Syria after they were suspended in January over the Lebanese crisis, and Assad will attend a summit of Mediterranean nations in Paris in July.

The U.S.' Arab allies, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, are also expected to thaw ties with Damascus in the wake of Syria's diplomatic shift toward Lebanon and the disclosure of the Turkish-mediated indirect peace negotiations between Syria and Israel