DAMASCUS, May 21 (Xinhua) -- Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem on Monday rejected accusations from Lebanese officials that his country had links to the radical Palestinian faction of Fatah al-Islam which fought Lebanese troops in northern Lebanon for a second day.

    Muallem said in a lecture at Damascus University that Syrian forces have been searching for Fatah al-Islam militants, even through the international police.

    "We reject this organization. It does not serve the Palestinian cause and it is not after liberating Palestinians," the Syrian top diplomat said.

    Muallem added the Syrian Interior Ministry had already issued statements about the leaders of Fatah al-Islam after two buses bombings in Lebanon in March.

    Some Lebanese officials said that the militant group was backed by Syria to derail UN moves to set up an international tribunal to try suspects in the assassination of former premier Rafik Hariri in 2005.

    It was reported that Fatah al-Islam emerged in November when it split from Fatah al-Intifada (Fatah Uprising), a Syrian-backed Palestinian group.

    But a Syrian interior ministry statement in March said that Fatah al-Islam is one of al-Qaida branches that plots to carry out terrorist acts in Syria which was uncovered in August 2002.

    The statement said commander of the group, Shaker Abssy, who was detained by the Syrian forces, was released late last year after serving his three-year term in prison for belonging to al-Qaida organization.

    Abssy, who returned to his terrorist activities, including training terrorists in favor of al-Qaida, was wanted again by the Syrian authorities under a new arrest warrant, it added.

    The fighting between the Lebanese troops and Fatah al-Islam militants around a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon entered the second day on Monday, raising the death toll in two days of fighting to at least 57.