DAMASCUS (AFP) - The Lebanese and Syrian presidents vowed during talks in Damascus on Thursday to keep up coordination between the two Arab neighbours amid signs of improved ties.

Syria’s Bashar Assad and Michel Sleiman of Lebanon met just three days after the formation of a unity government in Beirut following almost five months of tough negotiations.

The two leaders reviewed “the positive developments which have recently taken place in Lebanon,” especially the new Cabinet, Syria’s state news agency SANA reported.

Assad called for the rival parties in Lebanon “to take advantage of this positive atmosphere and to continue dialogue so as to strengthen Lebanese understanding and unity as a basis for stability”. Sleiman, on a second visit to Damascus since his May 2008 election, hailed “the privileged relations with Syria, which are in the interests of Lebanon,” SANA reported.

The presidents agreed to “continue consultations, coordination and cooperation”. In Beirut, the presidency said the two leaders “stressed that they share the same point of view as concerns regional and international issues” and would “work together at all levels and in all domains”. On Monday, Lebanon’s Prime Minister Saad Hariri formed a national unity government with Hizbollah, which is backed by Syria and Iran, and its allies.

Syria was the key powerbroker in its smaller neighbour for nearly 30 years before the 2005 murder of Hariri’s father, ex-premier Rafik Hariri.

On Thursday, Hariri received a congratulations telegram from his Syrian counterpart Mohammed Naji Otri, in what was the first official contact by Damascus with its longtime foe, a Hariri aide in Beirut told AFP.

Assad already congratulated Sleiman on the new Cabinet earlier this week.

But Otri’s telegram marked the first official message from Damascus to Hariri, who has had tense relations with Syria ever since his father’s assassination.

The killing prompted a Syrian troop withdrawal from Lebanon after a 29-year presence, amid charges that Damascus was involved in the assassination despite its persistent denials.

On Friday, Assad is to visit France, whose ties with Syria have also improved since 2008 due to the perception in Paris that Damascus has changed its attitude towards Beirut.