Syrian President Bashar al-Assad warned that any attack on Iran would be a 'disaster', pledging to help find a peaceful solution between the West and Tehran to the nuclear dispute.

'Nobody in the world will be able to bear the consequences of any action that is not peaceful because it would not result in a solution but in a disaster,' Assad said after meeting French President Nicolas Sarkozy in the Syrian capital.

Syria is a main ally of Iran. Sarkozy had asked Assad to use Syria's ties with Tehran to urge the Islamic Republic to cooperate with major powers over its nuclear programme, which Western countries say could be used to develop nuclear weapons.

Iran says the programme is peaceful. - Reuters