DAMASCUS (Xinhua) -- European Parliament (EP) President Hans-Gert Poettering arrived here on Saturday on a four-day official visit to Syria, the official SANA news agency reported.

Poettering said in a statement upon arrival here that he will discuss with Syrian officials issues regarding the Middle East peace process, relations between the EU and Syria, and issues of common interest.
He added that his visit to Syria comes in the framework of a regional tour in the Mediterranean and EU-Mediterranean countries.
For his part, Speaker of the Syrian People's Assembly (parliament) Mahmoud al-Abrash, who welcomed Poettering at the Syrian-Lebanese border point of Jdeidat Yabous, said the visit aims at developing the parliamentary relations between the two sides.
He, who has just wrapped up a visit to neighboring Lebanon, expressed the hope that the European parliamentary diplomacy would play a hoped role to reach solutions to regional problems.