“We completely reject the recent threat against Syria, which can only increase the likelihood of a new cycle of war and hatred,” Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal said in his opening address.

“We call on the United States to enter into dialogue with Syria and to activate the Middle East peace process,” the prince said, welcoming a possible visit to Syria by US Secretary of State Colin Powell.

The United Nations must have a central role in the reconstruction of Iraq, Prince Saud stressed. “The United Nations should have a pivotal role not only in humanitarian and economic issues but also in building postwar Iraq,” he added.

“We call on the occupying power, which we hope will withdraw from Iraq as soon as possible, to quickly put in place an interim government with a view to setting up a constitutional government,” the prince said.

He said the “occupation forces” were bound by the Geneva Conventions to ensure “security, stability, the safeguarding of Iraq’s popular and historic heritage and the restitution of stolen archeological items.”

Iraq’s national museum, which housed a major collection of artifacts from early Mesopotamian civilizations, was ransacked a week ago in the upheaval following the entry of US troops into the city.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher told reporters the participants wanted a swift withdrawal of US-led forces. “We cannot accept a military government. There is an occupying power with responsibilities...But for there to be a military government, this is something I don’t think anyone will accept,” Maher said during a break in the talks.

Maher said the ministers agreed on the essential points concerning Iraq’s future. “We have agreed on the need to uphold Iraq’s unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity,” the Egyptian chief diplomat said.

“This requires the withdrawal of foreign forces in order to enable the Iraqi people to choose their government in full freedom. Moreover, the United Nations must play an essential role” in Iraq, he said.

The minister said none of the participants at the meeting could live with a military government in Iraq and the Iraqi people should already have been engaged in picking their own government. He added that the meeting, “which had been due to extend into another day, will go on in the evening due to the commitments of some ministers who must leave Riyadh” overnight.

“We’ll discuss ways and means to help the Iraqi people decide their own future and choose their own government without foreign intervention,” Maher said in an earlier statement.

All the eight countries taking part at the conference have called for the restoration of stability in Iraq. They are determined to avoid the disintegration of Iraq along potentially destabilizing ethnic and sectarian lines. Turkey, with its own Kurdish minority, fears the growth of Kurdish power in northern Iraq. However, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said his country had not discussed the issue of Kurds during talks with the United States. “We are here today to discuss the territorial integrity of Iraq.”

He said the purpose of the conference was to focus on the postwar situation. “We are just debating the situation, since we are part of the region. It’s our responsibility to discuss and review the emerging situation in the region,” he added.

The Turkish minister urged American forces to leave Iraq as soon as possible.

Egyptian minister Maher said his country rejected the presence of a US military government in Iraq and would only deal with a government that reflected the free will of the Iraqi people. Maher called for respecting Iraq’s unity, territorial integrity and sovereignty.

Maher said the conference had expressed its hope that the UN sanctions against Iraq would be lifted soon. The wealth and resources of Iraq belonged to the Iraqi people, he said, adding that there was general agreement at the conference on that issue.

The meeting had not set a time frame for the withdrawal of the US/UK troops from Iraq, Maher said. “We are not here to set out a timetable, but we hope that it will happen as early as possible.”

The Riyadh conference also focused on much-needed humanitarian aid for the Iraqi people, especially in the medical sector. Saudi Arabia has already sent a convoy of relief supplies to Iraq on the instruction of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Fahd.

In his address, Prince Saud expressed his hope that the Iraq war would be the last in the region, which has seen a series of wars and armed conflicts over the past decades, causing massive human and material losses. “The time has come for us to work seriously to create the best opportunities for peace and stability in this disturbed region of the world,” he said.

Iran’s Kamal Kharrazi said his country, which figured alongside Saddam’s Iraq and North Korea in US President George W. Bush’s “axis of evil,” was not worried about being attacked by Washington. “We do not have such a concern because the situation in Iraq was a totally different story,” Kharrazi said. Kharrazi said US-led forces should leave Iraq soon and let the United Nations help Iraqis run their affairs. “The Iraqi people have shown their maturity. That proves that if the UN is there, they certainly could take care of their own future,” he told reporters.

US lawmakers have turned up the heat on Syria and appear poised to punish it both diplomatically and economically. However, a bill submitted last weekend by New York Representative Eliot Engel, just before the two-week congressional spring recess, does not propose immediate sanctions against Syria.

The bill, which has bipartisan support in both houses of Congress, establishes above all a framework for a renewed effort to force Syria to change its behavior.