DAMASCUS, April 13 (Xinhuanet) -- Turkish President Ahmed Necdet Sezer arrived here Wednesday for a two-day visit to Syria aimed at promoting bilateral ties.

    Sezer will hold talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on bilateral ties, the growing influence of Kurds in Iraq as well as regional and global developments, Syria's official SANA news agency said.

    Syria and Turkey share a common concern that if Iraqi Kurds are to win independence, it could cause unrest among ethnic Kurds in their own countries.

    Relations between the two neighbors had been frosty for decades, chilled by rows over territory, shared water resources and Syria's long-time tacit support for Kurdish separatists fighting in southeastern Turkey.

    A thaw began in 1998 when Damascus expelled outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan, whose PKK guerrillas had for years used Syria as a base to fight the Turkish government.

    Assad paid a landmark visit to Ankara in January 2004 and bilateral ties have witnessed improvement since then.

    This was the second time Sezer set foot in the Syrian capital.

    The first was in 2000 when Sezer attended the funeral of Bashar's father, late President Hafez al-Assad.

    Trade volumes between Syria and Turkey have doubled since 1998 and reached 1 billion US dollars in 2004, roughly 10 percent of Syria's total foreign trade.

    Despite improving ties, however, the use of the Euphrates water and the status of Turkey's southern Hatay province, over which Damascus claims sovereignty, remain two thorny issues. Enditem