Syria's president criticised a proposed US-Iraqi security pact for the first time on Sunday that would keep American troops in Iraq for three more years.

Bashar Assad said US troops contribute to regional instability and should withdraw from Iraq as soon as possible. He pointed to a recent American raid inside Syria near its border with Iraq as evidence that the US will use Iraq as a base to attack its neighbours.

"The latest American aggression on Syrian territory shows that the presence of American occupation forces constitutes a source of continuous threat to the security of Iraq's neighbouring states and a factor of instability for the region," he told group of Arab parliamentarians meeting in Damascus.



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US officials have said last month's raid targeted a top Al Qaida in Iraq figure. Syria has asked for proof and said eight civilians were killed in the attack.

Iraq has asked the US for an explicit ban in the proposed security pact on the use of Iraqi soil for attacks against the country's neighbours. The US has replied to the request, but the details are not known. Assad lashed out at the pact on Sunday and called on other Arab countries to reject it.

"The Arab position has to be clear and unified, that is to stress the necessity of ending the occupation and confronting any attempt to impose any agreement that infringes on the sovereignty of Iraq and its security and harms overall Arab national security," said Assad.

Iran, a key ally of Syria, has also criticised the pact, which would keep US troops in Iraq until the end of 2011.

The Iraqi parliament must approve the agreement by year's end when a UN mandate expires. Failure to approve the agreement or get the UN Security Council to issue a new mandate would force the US to suspend operations in the country