Salam meets Syria's Sharaa on trip seeking 'new page' in ties

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam met with Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa in Damascus on Monday, inviting him to visit Beirut during a trip aimed at rebooting ties between the two neighbors.

Salam and his foreign, defense and interior ministers made the first trip to Damascus by senior Lebanese officials since a new government was formed in Beirut in February, two months after an Islamist-led alliance ousted longtime Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad.

Salam met with interim President Sharaa and Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani and invited them "to visit Lebanon", his office said in a statement.

Salam's visit sought to turn "a new page in the course of relations between the two countries based on mutual respect, the restoration of trust... preservation of our countries' sovereignty and non-interference in each other's internal affairs", according to the statement.

Beirut and Damascus have been seeking to improve ties since the overthrow of Assad, whose family dynasty for decades exercised control over Lebanese affairs and is accused of assassinating numerous officials in Lebanon who expressed opposition to its rule.

The latest discussions touched on "controlling the border and crossings, preventing smuggling", and "demarcating the land and sea borders", the statement from the premier's office said.

Talks on border issues began last month in Saudi Arabia, where the Lebanese and Syrian defense ministers signed an agreement to address security and military threats along the frontier after clashes left 10 dead.

- Refugees, detainees -

Lebanon and Syria share a porous, 330-kilometre (205-mile) border that is notorious for the smuggling of goods, as well as people and weapons.

The two sides emphasized the importance of "strengthening security cooperation, which preserves both countries' stability", the premier's statement said.

They agreed to form a committee involving the foreign, defense, interior and justice ministries "to follow up on issues of shared interest", it added.

Salam's office said the talks also addressed "facilitating the safe and dignified" return of Syrian refugees "with the help of the United Nations" and the international community.

Lebanese authorities say their small, crisis-hit nation hosts some 1.5 million Syrians who fled their country's civil war since 2011, while the UN refugee agency says it has registered some 750,000 of them.

The issue of Lebanese nationals who were detained and disappeared in Syria's notorious prisons under the Assad dynasty's iron-fisted rule, as well as Syrians detained in Lebanese prisons whose release Damascus has requested, was also discussed, according to the statement.

Lebanese officials have requested Syria's assistance "in a number of judicial cases and to hand over wanted persons" to Lebanese authorities, the statement added.

Syria became the dominant power in Lebanon after former president Hafez al-Assad intervened in its 1975-1990 civil war, and his son Bashar al-Assad only withdrew troops in 2005 following mass protests triggered by the killing of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri.

In January, former Lebanese premier Najib Mikati met with Sharaa, in the first visit by a Lebanese head of government to Damascus since Syria's own civil war erupted with Assad's bloody crackdown on peaceful protests in 2011.

In December, Sharaa said his country would not negatively interfere in Lebanon and would respect its neighbor's sovereignty.