North Korea's leader expresses hope for stronger friendship with Syria

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il hopes for stronger friendship with Syria, the North's official news agency reported Saturday, amid lingering suspicions of a secret nuclear connection between the two countries.

Kim expressed the hope in a message to Syrian President Bashar Assad on the anniversary of a 1963 coup that brought Syria's Baath Arab Socialist Party to power, the North Korean Central News Agency reported.

"I express my firm belief that the friendly cooperative relations between the two countries will be further expanded and strengthened in various areas," Kim said in the message.

Kim's second-in-command, Kim Yong Nam, sent a similar message to the Syrian president, KCNA said.

North Korea has been suspected of helping Syria with a secret nuclear program.

But Pyongyang has strongly denied the accusations, saying it has never spread its nuclear expertise beyond its borders. Syria has also denied receiving any North Korean nuclear help.

In September 2007, media reports emerged that Israel Air Force missiles targeted a secret Syrian nuclear facility, built in cooperation with North Korea. Israel never confirmed the reports.

The alleged nuclear link is believed to be a sticking point stalling international talks on the North's nuclear programs, along with the communist nation's suspected uranium enrichment program.

Under last year's agreement with the United States, China, Japan, South Korea and Russia, North Korea is required to give a full account of its nuclear programs, including whether it spread nuclear technology beyond its orders.

Pyongyang claims it gave the nuclear declaration to the United States in November, but Washington says the North never produced a complete and correct declaration.

North Korea and Syria established diplomatic relations in 1966.

	North Korea's leader Kim Jong Il. (AP)