Syria said on Thursday that the U.S.-led war would fail to wrest control of the whole of Iraq and would draw popular resistance across the Arab world. In a front-page interview with Lebanon's as-Safir daily, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said Washington's attitude towards Syria was constantly shifting as its interests changed. "The United States is a superpower which can occupy a relatively small state but can it impose its control?" asked Assad.

"The United States and Britain will not be able to control all of Iraq. There will be much tougher resistance," Assad said.

"The army and Iraqi people are putting up strong opposition, but if the American-British designs succeed -- and we hope they do not succeed and we doubt that they will succeed -- there will be Arab popular resistance anyway and this has already started."

"On postions where interests meet, the Americans are well with us, but on positions where interests differ, they want us to go along with them and we do not," said Assad.

"On the issue of terrorism our interests coincided, as we were originally against terrorism and after September 11 they learnt the lesson and wanted to be against terrorism," Assad said.

"On other issues our viewpoints differ so we do not go along and there are disagreements...it is always like that," he said.

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Syria said on Thursday that the U.S.-led war would fail to wrest control of the whole of Iraq and would draw popular resistance across the Arab world.