BRUSSELS, (Reuters) – France, long opposed to high-level European Union contacts with Syria, said on Friday the EU had agreed to send its foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, to Damascus for talks on Middle East peace and Lebanon. “We confirm that an agreement has been found on the terms of reference of a personal mission by Javier Solana to go to Syria in the name of the EU,” a spokesman for President Jacques Chirac told reporters at an EU summit in Brussels.

Chirac has until now blocked EU contacts with Syria over its alleged role in the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri. No date was given for the trip.