Addressing an annual meeting of French ambassadors in Paris on foreign policy Thursday, Sarkozy said he opposed the concept of isolating Syria and that engaging Damascus would bring "tangible progress."

France, under his predecessor Jacques Chirac, severed ties with Syria shortly after the February 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in a massive car bombing in Beirut. Chirac, a close friend of the late Hariri, accused Damascus -- then Lebanon's powerbroker -- of involvement in the murder, which Syria repeatedly denied.

But under domestic and international pressure, Syrian troops withdrew from Lebanon in April 2005 after a 30-year presence. However, many Western-backed Lebanese politicians continued to charge that Syria was still meddling in their affairs by moving the Hezbollah-led opposition to fan the flames of a crisis that almost led to another civil war.

Sarkozy, who was elected two years ago, hinged the Franco-Syrian ties on the latter's relationship with Lebanon. He told the Syrians they would be rewarded if they showed goodwill by using their influence on the Lebanese opposition to resolve the crisis, which had left Lebanon without a president for six months and a paralyzed government for 18 months.

The problem was defused in Doha last May when the Lebanese players signed an Arab-sponsored accord that was immediately followed by parliament's election of President Michel Suleiman, and a unity government was formed several weeks later.

Though Damascus had repeatedly stressed it stopped interfering in Lebanon when it withdrew its troops, the regime of President Bashar Assad was given central credit for helping resolve the crisis.

Coincidentally, or not, the Syrians and Israelis almost simultaneously announced they resumed their peace negotiations -- indirectly through Turkish mediation -- the day the Doha accord was signed.

Sarkozy, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, was the first Western leader to reward the Syrians by welcoming Assad to the launch of a new Mediterranean Union in France and as a guest of honor to the Bastille Day celebrations in Paris last month.

He promised them more rewards and a vigorous role in bringing Syria to the European embrace if they showed more goodwill toward Lebanese sovereignty.

The French president hosted the first summit between Assad and Suleiman in Paris on the sidelines of the Mediterranean Union launch in July. There, Sarkozy had the pleasure of announcing that the neighbors had agreed to establish diplomatic ties for the first time since their independence from French colonial rule in the 1940s.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner went to Beirut and Damascus on Monday to see how far the two have come in forging their new relationship, after the Lebanese president made a milestone visit to Damascus where he and Assad agreed to exchange ambassadors and open embassies before the end of the year and to fully demarcate their borders.

These two moves, once they happen, will be a significant shift from the historic legacy and nationalist ideology of Syria's ruling Baath regime that came to power in 1963, which sees Syria and Lebanon as one state divided by false borders drawn up by foreign colonialism.

Assad seems to have given up that legacy for the French overture, which analysts say he hopes will be his doorway to the West; and perhaps more importantly, Sarkozy's doorway to invigorating a stronger European role in the Middle East -- one that will take away the keys the United States holds in terms of the Arab-Israeli conflict and the peace process.

The U.S. George W. Bush administration does not seem pleased with Sarkozy's aggressive diplomacy, refusing to comment on his upcoming visit to Damascus, but insisting that it will not follow his lead by lifting U.S. sanctions on Syria, which it blacklists as a "sponsor of terror," in reference to its alliance with anti-Israeli Palestinian factions and Hezbollah.

The U.S. position, however, is not likely to affect the Syrian leadership's calculations, as they watch the failing isolation strategy of a lame duck administration on its way out of the White House.

Arab analysts say Syria is betting on a rising European role, led by Sarkozy, while the United States preoccupies itself with the upcoming presidential election and the outgoing administration tries to parry political attacks over its belligerent foreign policy blunders in the Middle East.