DAMASCUS - Saudi Arabia and Syria agreed on Thursday to promote trade and investment between the two regional powerhouses, as Saudi King Abdullah wrapped up a visit to Syria, state news SANA reported.
Syria Finance Minister Mohammed al-Hussein and his Saudi counterpart, Ibrahim Assaf, said the volume of trade, now only two billion dollars (1.4 billion euros) a year, will "begin growing in the coming days," SANA said.
"We have decided to remove the difficulties hindering commercial exchanges, notably the taxes recently imposed by Syria on products exported to Saudi Arabia," such as olive oil and ceramics, Hussein was quoted as saying.
For his part, Assaf spoke of King Abdullah's visit, his first since acceding to the throne in 2005, as "very important for strengthening economic relations" between the two countries.
On Wednesday, the king and Assad agreed to "remove the obstacles" to closer ties between the two powerhouses long at odds.
The two leaders underlined their "commitment to pursue coordination and consultations at all levels on matters that interest both peoples," SANA said, and want to "remove the obstacles that have hindered their relations."
Ties between Damascus and Riyadh deteriorated in the wake of the 2003 invasion of Iraq over Saudi support for the United States.
Relations soured further after the assassination in 2005 of ex-Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri.
Hariri, who also held Saudi nationality, was close to the monarchy in the oil-rich Gulf state and had extensive business interests in the kingdom.
There were widespread suspicions that Syria was behind the killing, something Damascus has consistently denied.
In early July, Riyadh named a new ambassador to Syria after leaving the post vacant for a year, and a visit by Abdullah has been in the works since that time, Saudi officials say.
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