1,000 Ba'ath delegates ensure smooth handover from Assad to Bashar

One thousand delegates attending the ninth congress of the Syrian Ba'ath Party unanimously elected Dr Bashar al-Assad, son of the late president, as its secretary-general on Saturday.

Today Syria's parliament is scheduled to meet to formally confirm him as president and set a date in early July for a referendum to endorse this decision. In a matter of just two weeks the handover from father to son has proceeded smoothly, providing both stability and continuity.

The man who implemented the transition was the veteran Vice-President, Mr Abdel Halim Khaddam, considered a top candidate for the post until the late President, Mr Hafez al-Assad, decided to groom first his elder son, Basil, killed in a traffic accident in 1994, and then his second son, Dr Bashar, for the succession. Although this process was not complete at the time of Mr Assad's death, it was sufficiently advanced to carry the young man into office. Mr Khaddam ensured this would happen by placing in Dr Bashar's hands the three levers of power - the party, the army and the Alawite community - which the ruling clique has held since taking over in 1970.

Before being elevated to the Ba'ath Party's apex and senior bodies, the 90-member regional command and the 21-member central committee, Dr Bashar was appointed commander-in-chief of the armed forces. He had already attained the status of chieftain of the Alawite community, which forms 11 per cent of the Syrian population.

Also drafted into the party's central committee were the Prime Minister, Mr Muhammad Mustafa Miro, and the Foreign Minister, Mr Farouk al-Sharaa, and nine other allies of the young doctor, giving him a narrow majority in this key body. Although the party congress did not proclaim the dissolution of the country's ailing command economy and the creation of a market economy, as some Syrian economists and businessmen had hoped, Dr Bashar's reform-minded faction made it clear the public sector would be upgraded, the private sector expanded and the "clean hands" anti-corruption drive pursued.

Reform gathered momentum on Saturday, when Mr Miro presented to the congress a plan for the creation of free banking zones in Syria's main cities to service foreign investors. His efforts to cut red-tape to encourage wealthy Arabs to put their money into Syrian public projects has already met with success. Projects for cement, fertiliser and power plants valued at $2 billion have, reportedly, been initiated during the past two months. Prosecutors also chose the last day of the party congress to file corruption charges against the former deputy prime minister for economic affairs, Mr Selim Yassin, the former transport minister, Mr Mufid Abdel Karim, and a businessman, who have been accused of taking commissions on a $250 million contract for the purchase of six Airbus-320 aircraft in 1996.

The former prime minister, Mr Mahmoud al-Zoubi, also allegedly involved, committed suicide on May 21st after he was served with a summons. Besides clearing up corruption, these indictments sent a message to members of the "old order" who might contemplate mounting a challenge to Dr Bashar that they, too, could be investigated for corruption, particularly since it has been institutionalised in the Syrian army, bureaucracy and government.

President Hosni Mubarak said in Cairo yesterday Egypt would recognise a future Palestinian state, whether it emerged by agreement or was declared unilaterally. "If a Palestinian state is announced we will recognise it."