Turkish officials urge reform on Syria visit

Relations between the neighbors have warmed considerably in recent years and Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has been in close contact with the Syrian leader, urging him to exercise restraint since protests against Assad's 11-year rule began six weeks ago.

The head of Turkey's National Intelligence Agency Hakan Fidan and the State Planning Institute undersecretary headed the delegation.

Fidan has already visited Damascus at the start of the crisis as Erdogan's special representative.

"This delegation will hold meetings with the Syrian authorities about reforms that could be made," a foreign ministry official told Reuters.

"The delegation will share with Syrian officials Turkey's experiences in the fields of political and economic reforms."

The delegation also met with Syrian Prime Minister Adel Safar and other officials. It was due to return to Ankara later Thursday.

Assad is facing rare dissent from within his Baath Party and signs of discontent in the army over the violent repression of protesters that a rights group said Thursday had killed 500 people.

Erdogan has warned Assad that unless he undertook urgent reforms he could be toppled in the same way that popular uprisings have ousted autocrats elsewhere in the Middle East this year.

Ankara's ambassador to Damascus, Omer Onhon, was expected to give a briefing on the situation in Syria to Turkey's National Security Council Thursday. He met the Syrian prime minister at the start of the week.

Turkish and Syrian ministers have held strategic cooperation meetings in the last couple of years in a bid to strengthen ties which in past decades had been strained.

The two countries went to the brink of war in 1998 when Ankara threatened military action unless Damascus handed over Kurdish guerrilla leader Abdullah Ocalan. The subsequent capture of Ocalan calmed the tensions.

EU candidate country Turkey has also boosted trade links with Syria and lifted visa restrictions, reflecting a wider policy of closer ties with Middle Eastern countries.

Worsening unrest in Syria could lead to security concerns in Turkey, given the religious, sectarian mix in the neighborhood.

Turkey is a leading Muslim partner in NATO, and as a stable, democratic country it enjoys growing clout in an unstable region. President Barack Obama conferred with Erdogan Monday over the upheavals in the Middle East.