Lebanon's Blended Border Zone

Lebanese President Michel Suleiman and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad agreed at the summit, held in Syria's capital, Damascus, to revive a joint committee to demarcate the borders in other areas and strengthen efforts to control smuggling.

Residents of this area of Lebanon, called Wadi Khaled, were without nationality until 1994, when the government naturalized them. But residents say the Lebanese state remains absent from the lives of most people here, despite their citizenship. "There isn't even a road to this place, pregnant women have to deliver in their homes, and if they have complications, they die," Abou Louai said.

Mustafa, a Syrian construction worker observing the smuggling of hundreds of bags of cement across a river and a small wooden bridge, said he travels to Lebanon once a week to pick up cement.

"This is not smuggling," said Mustafa, who gave only one name. "We just want to build houses, and cement is cheaper here."

Many here said the smuggling of merchandise, unlike weapons, is harmless. "Smuggling of arms happens in areas very known to the state, and it doesn't happen on small roads like this; it happens on large roads in front of everybody," Abou Louai said. "But they won't do anything about it."

Anti-Syrian lawmakers in Beirut, the Lebanese capital, expressed caution about the wording of the demarcation agreement. "The Syrian position is just too ambiguous, and I feel like this is all a propaganda exercise," said Wael Abou Faour, the minister of state.

But Abou Faour and others in the anti-Syrian camp said they considered the agreement to establish diplomatic ties a good first step.

"The exchange of embassies is a very important and positive matter," said Prime Minister Fouad Siniora.

Among the issues raised at the summit was the matter of hundreds of prisoners believed missing in Syria. Both sides said they would step up efforts to determine their fate.