SYRIA INCREASES PRO-INSURGENCY SUPPORT Syria, in wake of U.S. economic sanctions, has increased its support of Islamic insurgency groups deemed as terrorists.

The American Foreign Policy Council said in a report that the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad has significantly increased its funding for and weapons shipments to Hizbullah.

The Washington-based organization said Syria has also continued its acquisition of weapons of mass destruction and could have been a client of the Pakistani nuclear network of Abdul Qadeer Khan.

Entitled "U.S. Hardball with Syria," the report said Syria has been harboring or supporting a range of insurgency groups that appear on the State Department's list of terrorist organizatons. They include Ansar Al Islam, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the Kurdish Workers Party.

"Syria's young dictator, Bashar Assad, has also deepened his regime's relationship with Hizbullah, Lebanon's powerful Shi'ite militia," the report, by the council's vice president, Ilan Berman, said. "This support has included financial transfers and massive arms shipments, which have expanded the guerrilla group's regional reach while solidifying Syria's grip on Lebanon."

At the same time, Syria has amassed at least 100 ballistic missiles armed with the VX nerve agent, the report said. The report said the use of Syrian VX was discovered after the foiling of an Al Qaida-aligned chemical weapons attack in Amman in April 2004.

The report was issued before the new Iraqi government accused both Iran and Syria of supporting Al Qaida-inspired insurgents. Iraqi officials said the Baghdad government plans to release evidence that details the complicity of Damascus and Teheran in helping the insurgency in Iraq. Iran and Syria have denied the accusation.

Iraqi officials said hundreds of Saddam aides have been using Syria as a safe haven to direct the insurgency. They said the aides were supplying funds and volunteers to the insurgency.

On Wednesday, the London-based A-Sharq Al Awsat daily quoted Western diplomatic sources as saying that Jordan has seized several trucks loaded with heavy weapons that arrived from Syria over the last few weeks. The trucks were said to have included anti-tank missiles and heavy artillery.

The intelligence sources based in Amman did not determine the destination and end users of these weapons, the newspaper said.

Hours later, mortars exploded outside the Baghdad offices of Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Alawi. Alawi has signed emergency security laws that would grant the government greater powers to confront the insurgency in Iraq.

In an unrelated development, Iran's military has launched an offensive against insurgents from the Kurdish Workers Party, or PKK, along the border with Turkey. A Turkish official said 1,000 Iranian soldiers, equipped with heavy weapons, have been fighting PKK insurgents since July 2.

The Turkish official said the Iranian military offensive took place in the Sahidan district of Iran and that nearly 20 PKK fighters and Iranian troops were killed. The PKK has acknowledged the Iranian offensive.