DAMASCUS - Syria on Wednesday defended its deployment of extra troops on the border with Lebanon as a measure to combat smuggling and infiltration by saboteurs, dismissing concerns raised in Beirut and Washington. "These measures aim to control the border, only from Syrian territory, and we have no other intentions," an official told AFP, declining to be named.

"Syria has in effect boosted its security measures with a few hundred (extra) soldiers, and the spy satellites know the truth," the official said.

"Our aim is to control the border, combat smuggling and stop saboteurs from crossing these  borders," the official said, adding that the issue had been raised during Lebanese President Michel Sleiman's visit to Damascus in August. The US State Department said on Monday that Washington was concerned about Syrian troop movements near the Lebanese border and warned Damascus against interference in Lebanon.

"The recent terrorist attacks that took place in Tripoli and Damascus should not serve as a pretext for, you know, further Syrian military engagement or ... should not be used to interfere in Lebanese internal
affairs," it said. On September 27, a car bomb exploded near a Shiite shrine in southern Damascus killing 17 people. The next day, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was quoted as saying northern Lebanon had become "a base for extremists" and warned that such developments "posed a threat" to his country. The anti-Syrian parliamentary majority in Lebanon said Assad's words appeared to be setting the stage for a return of Syrian forces to Lebanon. A September 29 car bombing in the northern Lebanese port city of Tripoli, the scene of frequent sectarian clashes, killed four soldiers and three
civilians.

The Lebanese army said on September 22 that Syria has boosted troop numbers along the border with north Lebanon but that Damascus stressed the move was linked to a crackdown against smugglers.

"Nearly 10,000 Syrian special forces have been deployed in the Abbudiya region along the border between Lebanon and Syria," a Lebanese army spokesman told AFP.

Syria, a longtime powerbroker in its smaller neighbour, withdrew its troops from Lebanon in 2005 after a deployment of three decades.