Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri said Sunday that he was "optimistic" about his country's ability to resist invading US and British forces and said he counted on "resistance" across the Arab world.

"Our position is solid. It is the solid position of the Arab people who will decide to do battle" with the United States, Sabri told reporters following a meeting with his Syrian counterpart Faruq al-Shara.

"The source of our optimism is the resistance of our people who have unlimited abilities. We count on the abilities of the Arab people who will resist in all Arab countries."

Sabri arrived in the Syrian capital on Sunday, becoming the first Iraqi government official to leave the country since the start of the war three days earlier.

He dismissed as "nonsense" reports that senior Iraqi officials had been killed or wounded.

American television network ABC had quoted US intelligence sources as saying that deputy Iraqi leader Ezzat Ibrahim, Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan and General Ali Hassan al-Majid were killed in coalition air strikes.

"It is ridiculous nonsense put out by the American-Zionist propaganda machine and relayed by Arabic-speaking media whose information is written in Tel-Aviv," Sabri said.

The Iraqi minister paid homage to Syria, which has been fiercely opposed to the war and is the only Arab country on the UN Security Council.

"The position adopted by the leadership and people of Syria is courageous. They are expressing the conscience of the Arab nation," he said.

Iraq and Syria began to mend fences in the late 1990s after years of mutual suspicion. The neighbouring countries are ruled by rival factions of the Baath party, and Syria was one of the few Arab states to back Iran in its bloody 1980-88 war with Iraq.

On Saturday, Syria's ruling coalition, the National Progressive Front, denounced the "barbarous aggression" of the coalition forces and called for an immediate halt to the war.

On his arrival in Damascus, Sabri called on Arab governments to "confront" the US-led war, which he said threatened all Arab countries.

"We hope that our Arab brethren will defend themselves and stand against the Zionist-American-British aggression which is targeted at all Arab countries to turn them into weak statelets ruled by (Israeli Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon,"

Sabri was set to leave the Syrian capital later Sunday for Cairo to attend an Arab league meeting.