U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld raised the spectre of wider conflict in the Middle East on Friday when he accused Syria of "hostile acts" in providing military aid to Iraq.

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld raised the spectre of wider conflict in the Middle East on Friday when he accused Syria of "hostile acts" in providing military aid to Iraq.

Rumsfeld, speaking at the Pentagon, also warned off Iran, saying that hundreds of Tehran-sponsored militants moving into Iraq "would have to be considered combatants" if they interfere with U.S. forces.

His blunt comments will almost certainly raise temperatures on the already incendiary Arab street, where passions are running high against the Anglo-American invasion next door.

And they come as U.S. commanders in the field and Rumsfeld himself suggested that Iraqi resistance was stiffer -- and the civilian reception cooler -- than anticipated after nine days of combat.

Rumsfeld said night-vision goggles and other unspecified equipment were being shipped from Syria into Iraq.

"These deliveries pose a direct threat to the lives of coalition forces," he said.

"We consider such trafficking as hostile acts and will hold the Syrian government accountable for such shipments."

He side-stepped a direct question as to whether he was threatening military action against Syria: "I'm saying exactly what I've said. It was carefully phrased."

In Damascus, Syrian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Bouthaine Shaban rejected Rumsfeld's statement as "unfounded and irresponsible."

"He only brings problems for his country and humanity at large," she told Britain's Channel 4 television in a telephone interview. "It is an absolutely unfounded, irresponsible statement, just like his statements that brought his country and the allied countries into a terrible war, unnecessary war on Iraq."

The war of words came a day after British Prime Minister Tony Blair had cautioned against "megaphone diplomacy" following a war council with U.S. President George W. Bush at Camp David.

Syria is a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, where the delicate job of rebuilding an international consensus on Iraq made headway Friday with a resolution to resume the oil-for-food aid program.

Rumsfeld's reference to Iran was more ambiguous.

Iran, a longtime enemy of the regime of Saddam Hussein, has officially said it will remain neutral in the conflict. And the militants that Rumsfeld targeted, known as the Badr Brigades, are Iraqi ex-patriots armed by Tehran and committed to opposing Saddam.

"They have been housed in Iran, armed by Iran, sponsored by Iran," Rumsfeld said, adding that coalition forces have a difficult enough task as it is.

"We'd prefer it not be made more difficult by the neighbours."

At least 100,000 more troops, including an armoured division, are being moved into Iraq, which will bring the coalition total to about a quarter-million.

Bush told veterans groups at the White House on Friday that the war is unfolding according to plan.

"The regime that once terrorized all of Iraq now controls a small portion of that country," he said.

But paramilitary guerrillas continued harassing the 500-kilometre-long U.S. supply line from the coalition base in Kuwait to the most forward troops less than 100 kilometres outside Baghdad.

Lt.-Gen. William Wallace, the U.S. army's senior ground commander in Iraq, raised a storm of controversy in Washington on Friday with comments published in the New York Times and Washington Post.

"The enemy we're fighting is different from the one we'd war-gamed against," said Wallace, adding that the conflict would likely be longer than initially envisioned.<

The Post also quoted Col. Ben Hodges, a brigade commander, saying he "personally underestimated the willingness of the Fedayeen (guerrillas) to fight, or maybe overestimated the willingness of the Shiites (citizenry) to rise up."

Rumsfeld defended the military plan, but backed away from a U.S. assumption that Iraqi civilians would immediately welcome coalition troops.

"Don't you think it's a little premature, the question?" he said.

"We'll know the answer to that as portions of the country are liberated."

Less than three weeks ago, Paul Wolfowitz, the U.S. deputy defence secretary, was emphatic that Iraqi citizens "understand what this crisis is about."

"Like the people of France in the 1940s, they view us as their hoped-for liberators," he said on March 11.