Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri has met neighbouring Syria's President Bashar al-Assad for talks. Mr Hariri was enthusiastically received and the talks between the two leaders were described as "constructive".

It is the prime minister's first visit to Syria since February 2005, when a powerful bomb killed his father, former prime minister and business tycoon Rafiq Hariri, along with 22 others. The attack, widely blamed on Syria, sparked a wave of anti-Syrian sentiment. Under pressure from the international community, Syria withdrew its troops from Lebanon in April of that year, after 29 years of military and political domination.

Syria has always denied any involvement in the assassination. Mr Hariri says he now wants to end the tensions between the two countries and forge "brotherly bonds".

Photo of Saad Hariri from Wikimedia Commons