DAMASCUS, July 21 (Xinhuanet) -- Syria said Thursday that it was doing its utmost to seal the border with Iraq to prevent militants' infiltration.

    Deputy Foreign Minister Waleed al-Mualem summoned some ambassadors earlier in the day and briefed them the measures Syriah as taken in this effort, the official SANA news agency reported, without revealing identities of the envoys.

    "Syria has increased its border posts to 557 along the 600 km desert border and increased the personnel of these posts to around 5,000 people," Mualem was quoted as saying.

    Damascus has also increased the height of a dirt rampant from 2 meters to 4 meters, dug trenches and placed concrete blocks and barbed wires in some part of the borders, he said.

    Mualem noted that Syria had prevented 1,240 militant suspects from crossing into Iraq and expelled most of them to their respective countries.

    "There were still 69 fanatics arrested and they were from different nationalities," he said, adding more than 4,000 Syrians who left or attempted to leave for Iraq to fight there have been investigated.

    Mualem underlined that stability in Iraq was key to Syria as it paves the way for the end of the US-led forces presence in Iraq.  

    "Syria supports the political process in Iraq and it is willing to cooperate with the Iraqi brothers to make it succeed because it is at the heart of Syria's interest," he said.

    Meanwhile, the senior official criticized that Iraq, the United States and Britain were uncooperative with Syrian efforts to prevent infiltrations into Iraq.

    "The United States did not respond to Syria's request in 2004 for night vision and radar-based monitoring systems, and then Syria turned to Britain, which promised to provide them but did not keep the promise up till now," Mualem said.

    He noted that infiltrations in daytime were now "very difficult" for insurgents, but infiltration problem still persists to a certain extent during the night because of the lack of necessary monitoring technical equipment.

    Mualem also blamed Iraq for failing to ratify a protocol for security cooperation signed in Damascus in July 2004 and subsequent agreements while "Syria has implemented all that is required."  

    Iraq's actions "make us appear as if we are the only side in charge of both sides of the border in addition to blaming us for what is happening inside Iraq," he said.

    The deputy minister complained Syrian border troops had been attacked "not only by infiltrators and smugglers but also by the Iraqi and American forces."

    "The border clashes amounted to about 100 and some of them werecarried out by American soldiers who opened fire arbitrarily at those present behind the dirt rampant due to loss of self control,"he said, indicating the first time Syria confirmed firing incidents by US troops on its forces at the border.

    Washington has always accused Damascus of doing too little to stop anti-US militants from crossing into Iraq, but Damascus insisted it has done its best.  Enditem