Bush warns Syria, Iran again

As he hosted Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi at his Crawford, Texas ranch, Bush said it was time for all governments in the Middle East to support Israel and the Palestinians as they strive to end their conflict.

"This includes the governments of Syria and Iran," Bush said at a press conference he also used to deliver a warm endorsement of the under-fire Italian leader, who backed his war on Iraq.

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"Today, Syria and Iran continue to harbor and assist terrorism. This behavior is completely unacceptable," he said.

Ahead of his meeting with Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmud Abbas in Washington on Friday, Bush said states which support terrorism will be "held accountable" and that terrorism undermined the prospects for Middle East peace.

Bush also faced a quickly worsening situation in Liberia, where dozens of people died in fighting and a shell crashed into the US embassy in the capital, Monrovia.

But he gave no signal on when he would deploy US forces after promising to help a West African peacekeeping operation after sending special forces to secure the embassy.

Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi rejected charges Monday by US President George W. Bush that his country was harbouring and supporting terrorists, telling AFP in Pretoria that "it is the United States that is harbouring terrorists" in Iraq.

"Iran has not only not been harbouring terrorists, but it has been fighting against them," said Kharazi, in South Africa for a meeting of a South African-Iranian bilateral commission.

"I think it is the United States that is harbouring terrorists because right now every corner of Iraq is controlled by Americans," he told an AFP correspondent.

Kharazi accused the United States of supporting armed Iranian rebels operating from Iraq, allowing them to "stay and function in Iraq" even though the group was "a registered terrorist organisation".

"If President Bush means by terrorists the al-Qaeda organisation, then not only are we not harbouring them but we have arrested them and sent some back to their countries of origin and even put some of them in prison," he said.