Syrian President Bashar Assad has expressed readiness to meet with Premier-designate Saad Hariri during talks with two top aides to French President Nicolas Sarkozy, a French source said.
The source told As Safir newspaper that Assad told Sarkozy's political chief of staff Claude Gueant and his chief diplomatic adviser Jean-David Levitte that he was ready to hold talks with Hariri in Damascus.

Official French sources also told pan-Arab daily al-Hayat that the Syrian president talked "positively" about the Lebanese prime minister-designate and President Michel Suleiman.

As Safir's source said Paris encourages Hariri's participation in any summit, a reference to a meeting that reportedly could take place between Assad, Suleiman, Saudi King Abdullah and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

The newspaper said the decision to hold the summit hasn't been finalized yet but Assad welcomed Hariri's participation in it.

The official French sources also added that Lebanon would "benefit" from the positive regional atmosphere and from normalization of relations between Syria from one side and Saudi Arabia and Egypt from the other.

The meeting between the French envoys and Assad in Damascus on Tuesday came ahead of a planned visit by Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner to Syria and Lebanon, which could take place possibly as early as next week.

Gueant and Levitte also met with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem, said foreign ministry spokesman Eric Chevallier on Wednesday.

"These talks, which took place in a very constructive spirit, are part of the regular contacts that we have with Syrian authorities and provided an opportunity for exchange on bilateral and regional issues," he added.

Kouchner was expected to travel to Damascus and Lebanon to preside over a regional conference of French ambassadors.

"Bernard Kouchner is scheduled to meet with Syrian authorities. His schedule has not been finalized," Chevallier said.

Al-Mustaqbal daily said that during Kouchner's visit to Beirut, France will not only be informed about Lebanese consultations to form a new cabinet, it will also express readiness to offer any assistance in this regard.

The newspaper added, however, that Paris does not intend to interfere in cabinet formation, an internal matter that should also apply to Damascus. Such a stance was made during the French envoys' visit to Syria.

In a position that contradicts al-Mustaqbal's report, the French official sources told al-Hayat that veto power "wasn't the ideal formula" for a Lebanese cabinet.

As Safir's French source also said that Syria wasn't insisting on veto power, adding that Assad was keen on the formation of a national unity government in Lebanon.