The secular Turkish daily Aksam has reported that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with President Bashar Al-Assad at his Aleppo palace for over two hours during an official visit.

The paper reported that that same day, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was in Syria, and noted that Pelosi had refused to meet with Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul on his recent trip to the U.S.

The paper said that Assad sent a message to Pelosi that he could not meet with her: "It is not possible. I cannot meet you today. I have a very important guest from Turkey; and tonight we will watch together a soccer game. I cannot come to Damascus before he leaves. We may meet tomorrow."

Turkey's most popular soccer team Fenerbahce was in Syria at that time to play Syrian champion team Al-Ittihad.

The paper reported that Erdogan told journalists that Turkey-Syria relations were "further developing in a positive direction" and that "the direct relationship between our peoples is also growing; sports events contribute to that..."

Source: Aksam, Turkey April 4, 2007