Syrians went to the polls on Sunday to re-elect President Bashar al-Assad for a second term in a ballot widely viewed as a formality.

Only a political miracle could stop Assad, the only candidate allowed to run, from cruising to victory.

With Iraq plunging into sectarian strife and instability in Lebanon, state media and the Baath party have emphasised Assad's command of a strong state, economic reform and his vision of upholding Arab rights in the struggle with Israel.

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"With Bashar, Syria is the homeland of security and stability," the government said in a message to mobile phone subscribers in a million-dollar campaign launched along with businessmen close to the ruling class. They also said: "Today Syria has a rendezvous with its future."

Parliament unanimously chose the 41-year-old as the sole candidate for president earlier this month. At least one other contender, a lawyer, said his application was ignored.

Ruling Baath Party functionaries, public sector employees and members of the massive security apparatus were among the first at polling booths when they opened.

Assad won 97.29 percent of the vote last time when he succeeded his late father, Hafez al-Assad, in 2000. Similar margins were normal in such votes during the elder Assad's rule.

Campaign films showed Assad with Western officials who have visited Damascus lately to emphasize what Syria views as its success in defeating U.S.-led attempts to isolate it.

Crisis

But Assad faces immediate challenges. The United Nations Security Council is expected to approve the creation of a tribunal to try suspects in the 2005 assassination in Beirut of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik al-Hariri.

A UN investigation has implicated Lebanese and Syrian security officials in the killing. Syria denies involvement.

The Damascus government said the court was a U.S. tool aimed at destabilising Syria and punishing it for its pro-Palestinian stance and support for Hezbollah, which Syria regards as a resistance movement.

"The regime's handling of Lebanon will continue to undermine it ... Syria is taking one hit after the other," Riad al-Turk, Syria's leading dissident, told Reuters.

Economic performance is also central for the Syrian president's strategy of building legitimacy and raising Syria's profile as a pivotal Middle East player. But oil exports have been declining and a huge welfare state and public sector are deepening the budget deficit, already at four percent of gross domestic product.

Although Assad has slowly opened the economy, he has kept firm control of the political system, which the Baath have monopolised since a 1963 coup when they imposed emergency law, banned the opposition, and nationalised most industries.

A new campaign to crush dissidents was launched last year and leading political activists were arrested and handed years of jail sentences for criticising government policy toward Lebanon and demanding political freedoms.

Domestic protests and international pressure forced Syria to withdraw its forces from Lebanon after Hariri's assassination.