DAMASCUS, Oct. 1 (Xinhua) -- Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem called for security cooperation with neighboring Lebanon to boost the border area in combating arms smuggling, a pan-Arab newspaper reported on Wednesday.

    There was smuggling both to and from Lebanon and Syria's frontier with Lebanon cannot be controlled without security collaboration with Beirut, Muallem was quoted by the London-based Asharq al-Awsat newspaper as saying.

    "The question of the border between Syria and Lebanon needs two actions: delineation (of border) and Syrian-Lebanese security cooperation," Muallem said.

    Muallem also restated Damascus' rejection that Syria is the main transit route for weapons to Lebanon's Shiite militant group Hezbollah, the only Lebanese group keeping their weapons away from state control.

    A UN Security Council resolution, which put to an end the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, appealed to Beirut to tighten border check to contain arms smuggling.

    During Lebanese President Michel Suleiman's visit to Syria in August, the two neighboring countries announced that they agreed to normalize bilateral ties and demarcate their borders.

    Bilateral ties between Syria and Lebanon have been chilled since the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in February 2005, which many blamed Damascus for being behind, but Syria denied any role.

    Syria and Lebanon have not established diplomatic relations since their independence from the French colonial rule in the 1940s.