Syria's Assad in France to break out of isolation

PARIS (AFP) — Syrian President Bashar al-Assad made a comeback on the international stage on Saturday, with a visit to France for talks with President Nicolas Sarkozy, on the eve of a Mediterranean summit.

After years of being shunned by former French leader Jacques Chirac, Assad was welcomed in Paris for a meeting at the Elysee palace before joining some 40 other foreign leaders for a Mediterranean summit on Sunday.

He was also to hold talks later Saturday with new Lebanese President Michel Sleiman, their first meeting since his election in May ended Lebanon's worst political crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war.

Assad and Sleiman could announce a breakthrough in talks on establishing diplomatic relations at the meeting that was also to be attended by Qatar's emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, whose country brokered the power-sharing deal that ended the Lebanese crisis.

But ...