According to available information, Syria also has 345,000 reservists out of a total population of around 18 million.

The army branch of the military counts 215,000 troops, 4,500 tanks, Soviet-era Scud ballistic missiles and surface-to-surface SS 21 missiles, while the air force is estimated to number 40,000 men, 611 rundown fighters and 90 helicopters.

In recent years, countries like North Korea have helped Damascus to develop chemical weapons according to various sources.

In the event of major conflict, Damascus must rely on its large arsenal of missiles and its unconventional weaponry, experts say.

Israel, which is believed to have an arsenal of nuclear bombs, unlike Syria, remains the superpower in the region, with a stronger military than those of Syria, Egypt and Jordan combined.

Yet according to defence specialist Richard Bennett, Syria's military "remains one of the biggest in the Arab world", despite the setbacks it has suffered against Israel.

Since the fall of the Soviet Union, its main ally and supplier, "the Syrian military's ability to fight has seriously deteriorated ... and its weapons have become increasingly obsolete," Bennet said.

According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, Syria received arms supplies worth 800 million dollars from 1995 to 2000, or 0.7 percent of the total in the region.

But the Syrian forces' weaknesses were already becoming apparent in the 1980s, in particular during the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon when its air force was blown out of the skies within hours.

Currently, the bulk of the military's forces are based at military headquarters in Damascus. The remainder are deployed in an arch reaching from the northwest to the southwest, facing the Golan Heights and Lebanon.

An impressive line of defence is deployed between Damascus and the Golan Heights.

Yet Syrian positions on the crest of Mount Lebanon -- where there are radar stations, anti-air batteries and surface-to-surface missiles -- as well as anti-air batteries around Damascus, have not deterred Israel from attacking the region around the capital, as it did in October 2003 for the first time in 30 years.

In Lebanon, some 10,000 Syrian soldiers are stationed in the Bekaa Valley, and another 4,000-5,000 are deployed just west of the valley.

Syria took part in the US-led coalition against the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, but without its soldiers playing any major combat role in the 1991 Gulf War.

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