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DATE=10/08/00

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=SYRIA PLANE /BAGHDAD (L-O)

NUMBER=2-267640

BYLINE=DALE GAVLAK

DATELINE=CAIRO

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: Syria has sent its first plane to Baghdad in two-decades to protest 10-years of U-N sanctions. The flight is also seen as a further sign of improving ties between Damascus and Baghdad, after years of animosity. Dale Gavlak reports from Cairo.

TEXT: A Syrian plane carrying senior government officials, medical aid, and doctors has landed at Saddam International Airport. The delegation's leader, Cabinet Minister Mohamed Sevo, said - we are Arabs, and we are here to show our support to our brothers in Iraq.

The Airbus-320 carried 10-tons of medical and humanitarian supplies.

Syria has joined the ranks of other Arab states such as Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia, Yemen, the United Arab Emirates, and Algeria - all of which had U-N approval. Groups from Egypt, Lebanon, and Turkey have also announced plans to send planes to Baghdad in coming days.

Syria's flight comes two-weeks after France and Russia first challenged the decade-old sanctions by sending planes to Baghdad without authorization from the U-N sanctions committee.

The visit shows that relations between Iraq and Syria, ruled by rival factions of the Arab nationalist Ba'ath Party, are continuing to thaw. Last week, Damascus called for an end to U-N sanctions against Iraq, and trade and transportation links between the two states have been increasing during the past three-years.

Diplomatic ties between the two deteriorated during the 1980-88 Iraq-Iran war when Damascus sided with Tehran. They worsened after Damascus joined a U-S-led multinational force that drove Iraqi troops out of Kuwait in 1991.

Iraq's state-controlled press has applauded the flights, saying they showed that the sanctions regime is crumbling.

But the chairman of the U-N sanctions committee, Dutch Ambassador Peter van Walsum, argues that

Baghdad would be making a - tragic mistake - if it thought the sanctions would disappear without it allowing weapons inspections to resume.

Both the U-S and Britain argue that the embargo cannot be removed until Iraq proves it is free of its weapons of mass destruction. (SIGNED)

NEB/DG/ALW/RAE