BEIRUT: Syrians remained defiant on Tuesday as they awaited news of what sanctions the US will impose on their country for supporting Palestinian groups.

"Whatever the sanctions to be imposed by the US would hurt the American interests more than the Syrian interests," said Mohammed Aziz Shukri, a professor of international law at Damascus University. "Frankly speaking, we couldn't care less about these sanctions. We are expecting the worst from this administration - we expect more than the sanctions."

Congressional and administration sources on Monday said that US President George W. Bush would impose long-awaited sanctions on Syria for allegedly supporting "terrorist" groups, such as Hamas, Hizbullah and Islamic Jihad, allowing foreign fighters into Iraq to fight coalition forces, developing weapons of mass destruction and Syria maintaining a military presence in Lebanon.

The action was expected to come as early as Tuesday. As of press time, the sanctions still had not been announced.

"We want to see Syria change their behavior," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said on Monday.

But Syria refused to budge from its "principled stance" on Tuesday.

The nation was "solid and cohesive in the face of all challenges and foreign pressure practiced against Syria to affect its principle stances," read a statement quoting Prime Minister Mohammad Naji al-Otari at a weekly Cabinet meeting.

Last year, several Palestinian groups, including Hamas, closed their offices in Syria. But Palestinian leaders are allegedly still present in the country. To what extent the groups are active remains unclear.

"As long as there are refugees in Syria, nobody will be able to ban these organizations," said Samir al-Taqi, a researcher with the Strategic Research Center at Damascus University.

"Yasser Arafat and Jordan are not capable of banning them. Neither are the Lebanese. As

long as there are 400,000 refugees it is elusive to think that these groups can be banned. As long as they are there, they will have their activities and Syria is supporting that," he added.

Syria is particularly reluctant to shut out such groups and to forego its option to develop weapons of mass destruction without any real commitment from the US or Israel to restart peace negotiations.

Under the accountability act, the US is barred from exporting military and dual-use items to Syria. Bush is also required to pick at least two of six possible economic or political sanctions to be imposed, unless Syria acquiesces to US demands.

On Tuesday, congressional sources told AP that Bush was expected to implement three sanctions from the list. One would bar future investments by American energy firms in Syria and prohibit Syrian aircraft from flying into the US. Syrian aircraft do not currently fly to the US.

One source said the third penalty would be a ban on the export of US products to Syria. In 2002, the US exported a net worth of $275,000 and imported $148,000 from Syria.

Bush also could block transactions of the Syrian government in the US, to impose severe travel restrictions on Syrian diplomats in the US and to downgrade diplomatic relations.

But, according to Syrian analysts, the sanctions are mostly symbolic, and it is the US companies that will lose out business if sanctions are applied.

US companies dominate the Syrian oil sector, with a number of contracts awarded to US firms over the last year. Those include Devon Energy, IPR and Veritas, which conducts seismic surveys as part of its oil exploration and production program. ConocoPhillips is expected to end its operations in Syria  in 2005. - With agencies

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