United Nations, May 26, SPA -- Syria has arrested more than 1,200 people trying to cross the border into Iraq in recent weeks andsent many of them back to their own countries, Syria's U.N.ambassador said. Ambassador Fayssal Mekdad also denied rumors that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi may be seeking shelter in Syria, The Associated Press reported. Mekdad said Syria suspected that the people arrested _mostly foreigners _ intended to carry out illegalactivities in Iraq so they were arrested and sent back to their owncountries. "We gave a lot of information to the United States onthese issues, which prevented many attacks, butregrettably, the United States did not recognize such kindof help," he said in an interview Wednesday. Syria's ambassador to the United States, Imad Mustafa,said Tuesday that Syria had stopped security and militarycooperation with the United States in the past few monthsafter Washington failed to respond to repeated Syrianovertures. Mekdad said contacts continued "until a fewweeks ago."--SPA1147 Local Time 0847 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/265235