Men held in killing of US diplomat

Jordan has arrested two men it described as self-confessed members of al-Qa'ida for the killing of Laurence Foley, an American diplomat shot outside his Amman home in October.

They were named as Salem Saad bin Suweid, a Libyan, and Yasser Fatih Ibrahim, a Jordanian. An official statement yesterday said that ammunition and firearms used in the Foley attack had been found in the men's possession.

It also claimed a top al-Qa'ida operative had supplied the two men with guns and money for a terrorist campaign in Jordan.

Mr Foley's death dented Jordon's reputation as one of the safer countries in the troubled Middle East. Al-Qa'ida's presence in the region is expected to be high on the agenda in talks between Britain and Syria this week.

President Bashar Assad, whose country was condemned a little over a decade ago as a "terrorist state", will arrive tonight on an unprecedented state visit to Britain.

Mr Assad, the first Syrian head of state to visit Britain, will have a working lunch with Tony Blair in 10 Downing Street, and an audience with the Queen.

The Prime Minister and Mr Assad will hold a joint press conference in Downing Street ­ opening the prospect of another public clash like the one that marked Mr Blair's ground-breaking visit to Damascus last year.

With Mr Blair at his side, the Syrian President condemned the allied war in Afghanistan and justified armed resistance in Israel.

Syria's tough stance on Israel was demonstrated again yesterday after it voted against a resolution condemning the suicide bomb attack on an Israeli-owned hotel in Mombasa, Kenya.

However, it was the only Arab member of the United Nations Security Council to back Resolution 1441, which recently sent the UN weapons inspectors into Iraq. Syria's secular regime, dominated by the minority Alawite sect, is hostile to Islamist groups such as al-Qa'ida.