Lebanon Slaying Complicates U.S. Hopes

President Bush speaks after a breakfast with troops at Hickam Air Force Base in Honolulu, Hawaii, Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2006. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak) (Charles Dharapak - AP)

Damascus denies involvement in the killing of Gemayel, but U.S. officials suspect a Syrian connection. Bush expressed his condolences in phone calls to both the Lebanese prime minister and to former Lebanese President Amin Gemayel, the father of the slain cabinet minister.

The U.S. has accused Syria and Iran of plotting to topple Saniora's fragile government, which is dominated by politicians opposed to Syrian influence in Lebanon. The slaying of Gemayel was the fifth murder of an anti-Syrian figure in Lebanon in two years.

Meanwhile, an independent panel led by former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, a Republican close to the Bush family, and former Democratic Rep. Lee Hamilton, is getting ready to release recommendations on U.S. options in Iraq. The proposals are expected to include openings to Syria and Iran in a bid to internationalize efforts to control the sectarian conflict.

Shibley Telhami, a Mideast scholar at the University of Maryland, said the United States and Syria are engaged in a "delicate dance."

"It's going to be very complicated because you're likely to have a real crisis in Lebanon intensifying over the next few weeks, and that's going to overshadow, I think, what the president was hoping Syria would do on Iraq," Telhami said.

He said the United States does not want Iranian-Syrian-Iraqi cooperation without U.S. involvement.

Jon Alterman, a Mideast expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said he thought there was an outside chance the administration would step up contact with Syria, but that in the end it would decide against it, partly because of U.S. anger about Syria's role in Lebanon.

"I think the administration was going to be under some pressure to open some sort of dialogue," Alterman said. "It seems to me that the assassination makes it less likely."

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Associated Press Writer Nasser Karimi in Iran contributed to this story.