DAMASCUS - EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said on Sunday she expects a long-delayed partnership agreement with Syria to be signed in mid-year.
There is a "good chance" the EU's council of foreign ministers will approve a revised accord "either under the Czech presidency, that means before the end of June, or early in the Swedish presidency," the commissioner said.
The EU and Syria drew up a draft pact in 2004 but it was never signed by EU member states for political reasons.
"We have updated the agreement with Syria and we are in the process of translating this agreement to the different languages of our member states," Ferrero-Waldner said on her arrival in Damascus for a meeting with President Bashar al-Assad.
The proposed pact envisages the granting of financial aid to Syria in return for economic reforms.
Ferrero-Waldner's visit is the first to Damascus by an EU external relations commissioner.
Syria has displayed "a constructive attitude... in the region. I think of the establishment of diplomatic relations with Lebanon, in some issues with Iraq, the indirect Syrian-Israeli talks, the efforts that Syria has undertaken to get the reconciliation process on course and particularly also for the ceasefire in the difficult Gaza conflict," she said.
"I'm glad to see that indeed the Syrian authorities have said that they are ready to continue the talks with a new Israeli government as soon as it is formed. We would like to see a comprehensive peace process in which the Syrian track plays an important role," the commissioner said.
"We would like to see a sustainable cease-fire between the different Palestinian factions and Israel and we would like to see a reconciliation process with the different Palestinian factions because we think only then there will be a real interlocutor for Israel."
Syria and Israel held a series of indirect contacts through Turkish mediators last year aimed at preparing for a resumption of peace negotiations broken off in 2000.
Damascus suspended the contacts in December judging that the "Israeli aggression" on Gaza had made their continuation impossible but has since expressed readiness to renew them when a new Israeli government has been formed after last week's general election.
US expects modest gains from thaw with Syria