Declaring his position in a Russian newspaper on Wednesday, Assad expressed support for Russia's pursuit of its "legitimate interests" and accused the West of distorting information to isolate the former Soviet power.

"On this issue, we fully support Russia," Assad said in an interview with the Kommersant daily on Wednesday as he prepared to begin a two-day visit to Moscow.

"Georgia started this crisis, but the West is blaming Russia. Everywhere there is total disinformation, distortion of facts, and international attempts to isolate Russia," he said.

Assad continued: "We oppose all these attempts, as we think that this is a continuation of U.S. Cold War-era policy. What Russia has done is to defend its legitimate interests," in reference to its offensive into Georgia to stop an attack on the pro-Russian, breakaway South Ossetia region.

Syria is no stranger to Western isolation, and continues to be regarded as a "rogue" state by Washington. Damascus has only recently started to return from the cold with a rapprochement with France, the current president of the European Union, and by resuming peace negotiations with Israel, although indirectly through Turkish mediation.

Assad's remarks came amid rising tension between Russia and the West following a NATO foreign ministers' crisis meeting on Tuesday that decided the international organization can no longer conduct "business as usual" with Moscow in the wake of its military intervention in South Ossetia.

Tension was taken to a higher level on Wednesday when the United States and Poland signed an agreement to install a U.S. missile defense shield on Polish soil as part of a system to shoot down ballistic missiles that could be launched by Western-viewed "rogue states," like Iran and North Korea, as well as "terrorist" groups.

Russia sees the defense shield in parts of central Europe that the former Soviet Union had controlled as a threat against Moscow, a fear exacerbated by the subsequent Russian political standoff with Washington, which backs Georgia.

While the U.S.-allied Arab regimes have been cautious not to express their views about the conflict in the Caucuses, the Syrian leader's words of support for Russia are hardly a surprise, coming from a former Soviet ally about to meet the new president in Moscow for the first time.

Moscow and Damascus say that Assad's visit, his third, was upon the invitation of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to bolster bilateral relations, which are expected to include discussions on speeding up military cooperation, especially in the wake of Israel's role in equipping and training the Georgian army.

Assad told Kommersant: "I think that everyone in Russia and in the world is now aware of Israel's role and its consultants in the Georgian crisis."

Israel says it does not supply weapons or military training to other countries as a government but as private firms, with the approval of the defense ministry.

In any case, analysts expect that Israel's support for Georgia and Assad's decision to stand by Russia will boost Syria's chances to acquire additional military assistance from Moscow.

The Syrian leader offered to cooperate with Russia "in any project that can strengthen its security," stressing that Moscow "really has to think of the response it will make when it finds itself closed in a circle."

Assad said his country was ready to discuss deploying Russian Iskander missile-defense systems on its territory, although it has yet to receive concrete proposals from Russia on the matter.

Israeli media reported this week that Russia was planning to install the system in Syria in response to the U.S. missile shield in central Europe and to U.S.-Israeli military aid to Georgia.

Syrian analysts privately say that this is a good time to boost Syria's Russian-made advanced military capabilities, especially if Assad wins the bet that Russia is re-emerging as a superpower.

The Syrian leader, whose country is also allied with Iran, did not hide his hopes in his remarks to the Russian paper.

"It's important that Russia takes the position of a superpower, and then all attempts to isolate it will fail," he said.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Tuesday told CBS News on Tuesday that Russia was to blame for its diplomatic isolation in the West, saying that Russia's refusal to withdraw from Georgia was making it "the outlaw in this conflict."

Responding to a question on whether Russia could become a "rogue state," Assad told Kommersant that resolving the problems in the former Soviet republics in Central Asia, the Caucasus and Europe was impossible without Russia.

"I think that after the crisis with Georgia, Russia has only become stronger," he said.