When Syria bowed to international pressure and pulled the last of its troops out of Lebanon in April, some government officials thought Bashar al-Assad, the country's young president, would turn his attention to developing his own country.

The new, reformist direction would become evident, they predicted, in the congress of the ruling Ba'ath party, which begins tomorrow. Mr Assad had declared back in March that the meeting would mark "a great leap" in the reform process. His foreign minister, Farouq al-Shara'a, said last week that the meeting would even accord "great importance" to the issue of human rights.