Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, will look to seal his tentative step back into the international fold as Nicolas Sarkozy, his French counterpart, begins a two-day visit to Damascus to discuss Lebanon and the Arab state’s indirect peace talks with Israel.

Mr Sarkozy was scheduled to hold talks with Mr Assad on his arrival on Wednesday. The French and Syrian leaders will sit down on Thursday with Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, who has helped mediate the indirect talks between Syria and Israel, and the emir of Qatar, which brokered a Lebanese power-sharing agreement.