The Iraqi interim Governing Council (IGC) is seeking a security agreement with Syria to stop cross-border terror operations, the current head of the US-appointed IGC said Sunday.

Abdel Aziz Hakim, who is due to leave for Moscow visit on Sunday evening, made the announcement to reporters after his meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The IGC is looking to sign agreements on security cooperation with Syria, through the intermediary of the Iraqi interior minister, Hakim told reporters.

"Cooperation on security is necessary to stop terror operations in Iraq and block the illegal infiltration of men" across the Syrian-Iraqi border, he added.

"Syria will cooperate" on the issue and it "wants neither an unstable Iraq nor terrorist operations in that country," the IGC head said.

Hakim, meanwhile, blamed "internal Iraqi resistance" to US forces on "terrorist groups who "target the interests of the Iraqi people and could prolong the occupation of Iraq." The United States has accused Syria of "turning a blind eye" to anti-US fighters who cross into Iraq via the porous, 600-kilometre (360-mile) border separating it from Syria.

(Xinhua News Agency December 22, 2003)