SYRIA ACKNOWLEDGES HOLDING IRAQI FUNDS

NICOSIA [MENL] -- Syria has acknowledged that its banks were holding funds of the former Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq.

But the regime of President Bashar Assad has disputed the assertion by U.S. officials that Syria was harboring about $3 billion in Saddam funds. Instead, Syria has maintained that its Iraqi assets did not exceed $300 million.

The Assad regime has frozen funds from the former Iraqi government, officials said. Dureid Dirgham, director of the Syrian Commercial Bank, said the Iraqi government deposited $216 million in the financial institution.

"No former Iraqi officials have private accounts in this bank," Dirgham was quoted by the official Syrian News Agency as saying.