(Recasts with Iraqi government spokesman)

By Ross Colvin

BAGHDAD, Nov 20 (Reuters) - Iraq and Syria expect to restore full diplomatic ties this week, the Iraqi government said on Monday after Syria's visiting foreign minister pledged support in helping its neighbour quell rampant violence.

Iraq and Syria severed ties a quarter of a century ago, when Syria sided with Iran during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war. They restored some links in the 1990s but do not have full relations.

"The first step is restoring diplomatic relations before the delegation leaves, God willing," Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told state television on Monday night.

The visit by Walid al-Moualem is the first by a Syrian minister since the U.S-led 2003 invasion and is a rare visit by any senior Arab official to Shi'ite-led Iraq, whose U.S. occupation and close ties with Shi'ite Islamist Iran are viewed with suspicion by Arab states.

U.S. and Iraqi officials have long accused Damascus of doing too little to stem the flow of foreign Islamist fighters and weapons across its long, porous border. Syria says sealing the border is impossible and Iraq must do more to patrol its side.

The U.S. military said on Monday that between 70 and 100 foreign fighters were still crossing the border each month.

"We don't know how much they (Syria) are assisting this effort, but we don't know how much they are trying to preclude it either," U.S. military spokesman Major General William Caldwell told reporters in Baghdad.

After meeting Iraqi officials, including Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, Moualem pledged Syria's cooperation in tackling violence that has raised the spectre of civil war, saying it was prepared to work "hand in hand to achieve the security of brother Iraq".

WORDS AND ACTION

"The stability of Iraq is a very important part of the stability of Syria," he said. Around 1 million Iraqi refugees have fled to Syria since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

Dabbagh said the good words now needed to be followed by action, noting that the two countries planned to set up a joint security committee.

"We see positive desires and good intentions. We would like these intentions to be translated into deeds on the ground."

U.S. President George W. Bush's allies have urged him recently to open the door to talks with Tehran and Damascus to seek their help in stabilising Iraq, where insurgent violence and sectarian attacks are threatening to tear the country apart.

But Moualem, who said on Sunday that a timetable for a U.S. troop withdrawal would be the best way to reduce violence, said he was not in Iraq to "please the United States".

"I am nobody's godfather and not a mediator for the United States," he told a joint news conference after talks with powerful Iraqi Shi'ite Islamist leader Abdul Aziz al-Hakim.

"In this current situation there is no dialogue between Syria and the United States," he said.

Washington withdrew its ambassador to Damascus and says it will not authorise higher-level contacts because of Syria's suspected role in supporting violent militants, Iraqi insurgents and opponents of Lebanon's government.

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