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GV UN aircraft arrives
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GV Syrian officials (Khaddam on left)
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SV Waldheim down steps & greeted by officials (2 shots)
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SV, GV Waldheim, officials & Khaddam across tarmac (2 shots)
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CU UN flag TILT UP Waldheim talking to press (2 shots)
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CU Khaddam
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SV, GV Cars leaving (2 shots)
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Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim arrived in Syria on Monday (August 27) on the first stage of a tour of the Middle East to review the situation there.

His Middle East visit - the first since he became Secretary-General - will take him to Lebanon, Israel, Egypt, Jordan and Cyprus.

Mr. Waldheim was greeted at Damascus Airport by the Syrian Foreign Minister, Mr. Abdel-Halim Khaddam. He had a ninety-minute meeting with Mr. Khaddam on Monday and called on President Hafez Al-Assad the next day. Syria has never before agreed to receive such a high-ranking U.N. official and has rejected previous UN resolutions on the Middle-East. The official government newspaper. Al-Baath, said on Tuesday that Syria would not accept any new United Nations' plan but would use every means to liberate territory occupied by Israel.

The Secretary-general will go straight on from this tour to the conference of non-aligned nations opening in Algiers on September 5th. There has been intense diplomatic activity int he Middle-East to prepare for the conference, including a secret visit to Syria by Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.