Syria on Monday charged that Israel prodded the United States into invading Iraq to sway attention from its actions in occupied Palestinian lands.

Addressing the United Nations General Assembly, Syrian Foreign Minister Farooq al Sharaa pointed out that Israel had built up a nuclear arsenal, expanded settlements on Palestinian lands, built a "racist segregation wall", transformed its army into "armed gangs bent on systematic killings and war crimes" and shunned the peace process "despite the hand extended in peace by the Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese".