Syrian President Hafez Assad dies

DAMASCUS, Syria - Hafez Assad, Syria's autocratic president who dreamed of Arab unity but watched his neighbors sign peace deals with Israel, died Saturday before he was able to win back the treasured Golan Heights he lost to the Jewish state 33 years ago. Assad, 69, had been suffering from heart problems.

The death of the skillful and ruthless leader could deal a blow to Mideast peace prospects by ushering in a prolonged period of instability, but it could also mean an opportunity for Syria to forsake at least part of its implacable enmity toward Israel.

The Syrian parliament moved to clear the way for Assad's son, Bashar, to assume the presidency, amending the constitution to lower the minimum age for presidents to 34 - Bashar's age. Then parliament adjourned until June 25. No funeral plans were immediately announced.

As word spread in Syria, a few hundred people gathered in the streets near the presidential palace, chanting: ''With our souls, with our blood, we will protect you, O Bashar.'' More police than usual were on the streets in this heavily policed state.

Syria's red-black-and-white flags were lowered to half-staff. Stores closed. Secondary school exams, scheduled this weekend, were postponed until next week. Loudspeakers at government buildings, hotels and other establishments resounded with verses from the Koran, Islam's holy scriptures.

''This is a day of sadness and sorrow in every home, school, university, farm, factory and quarry,'' an announcer on state-run television said. ''Sadness is in the heart of every man, woman and child. ... The legacy of his accomplishments and ideas is a planet that will shine not just on this generation, but also on coming generations.''

The United States and Israel, two countries with which Syria often is at odds, expressed sorrow, and condolences poured from the Middle East and capitals around the world.

''We had our differences, but I always respected him,'' President Clinton said.

Assad, a career air force officer who took power in a bloodless coup in 1970, has been grooming Bashar for future leadership, but the British-educated ophthalmologist has held no major political office.

Instead, Bashar has been going abroad as his father's special envoy. At home, he has been waging an anti-corruption campaign. He was expected to be brought into the ruling Baath Party leadership at a congress to open June 17.

Syria's constitution provides for a vice president to take over if the presidency is vacated. Syria currently has two vice presidents: Abdul-Halim Khaddam and Zuheir Masharqa. Khaddam is first vice president, but reportedly fell out of favor in the past two years as Bashar's star rose.

It was not known whether Assad specified that Masharqa take over in an interim period. He has been in charge of political and Baath Party affairs and is thought to have little influence with the military.

Assad had suffered from heart problems, lymphoma and kidney failure, according to a Lebanese heart surgeon close to the Assad family. The surgeon, who insisted on anonymity, said Assad died of heart failure.

Syrian television showed members of the nation's parliament standing, heads bowed in the chamber for a moment of silence, wiping away tears. Soon after, the television switched to Koranic recitations, a standard practice in the Muslim world following a leader's death.

Within hours, somber new posters showing the late president with Bashar appeared on car windows; black ribbons were tied to car radio antennas.

Lebanese President Emil Lahoud, in a letter to Bashar, wrote that he was the last to speak to the Syrian leader.

''The last phrase he told me was that our fate is to build for our children an assuring future and it is our duty to make sure they inherit better than what we inherited,'' Lahoud said in a letter distributed by his office. ''Then there was a sudden silence and the line broke off.''

The country Assad led was isolated and economically troubled. But Syria's president for three decades never hinted he saw himself as a man defeated.

A case in point were on-again, off-again negotiations with archenemy Israel. Analysts had said the 1999 election of moderate Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak was Assad's last chance to win back the strategic Golan Heights captured in 1967, when Assad was defense minister.

When his army regained a slice of the Golan in 1973 fighting, Assad went himself to raise the Syrian flag there, demonstrating the area's political importance.

But Assad was not to be hurried or pressured in talks that resumed in December after a hiatus of nearly four years.

The negotiations were suspended in January when Syria insisted Israel commit to returning to prewar 1967 borders. Israel sought lines closer to the 1923 colonial border and insisted on retaining sovereignty over a strip of land also claimed by Syria along the shores of the Sea of Galilee, a key water source.

The wily Assad often succeeded by keeping both foes and friends guessing, reversing course suddenly when he saw an advantage.

Syria put aside enmity with the United States to join the U.S.-led coalition against its longtime rival Iraq during the 1990-91 Gulf crisis. Assad sent troops to help drive Iraq out of Kuwait, and later reaped diplomatic and financial benefits that included $2 billion from Saudi Arabia.

Assad could never be discounted in the Middle East equation. ''The Lion of Damascus'' - his family name means lion in Arabic - was one of the Middle East's longest serving leaders. He was credited with bringing political stability to a country of 9 million that saw repeated coups after independence from France in 1946.

Assad built a Soviet-style personality cult at home and his portrait was plastered everywhere. His rise was an extraordinary feat for a man who began life as a peasant boy from the minority Alawite Muslim sect, born Oct. 6, 1930 in Syria's coastal hills. He plotted his way to power through the ranks of the military and the socialist Baath Party.

He worked long hours and prided himself on managing the most minute details of his administration. His discipline extended to his private life - he was a vegetarian who abstained from alcohol, but rumors about ill health have dogged him since a heart attack in 1983.

He survived several reported coup attempts, including a 1984 effort by his ambitious brother Rifaat.

Assad's attempts to rally other Arab leaders to present a unified front against Israel gained little ground. He derided Egypt for signing a peace treaty with Israel in 1979. Syria and its client state Lebanon faced the prospect of being the last of Israel's neighbors to work out a peace deal.

During the Cold War, Assad had close ties with Moscow, and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 was a blow.

Assad maintained a vast army of secret police and informers. His government jailed thousands of political prisoners without trial during his rule, according to human rights groups.

Nonetheless, discussion of economic problems in recent years began to appear in Syria's state-controlled media. Occasionally, even some government ministers have been criticized, though no one ever dared target Assad himself.

Bashar Assad's elder brother, Basil, had been groomed as heir until his death in a 1994 car crash. Assad had three other sons and a daughter. He married an Alawite woman from a prominent clan. The presidential family was rarely seen in public.