US officials held an "unpublicized" meeting with exiled Syrian dissidents in Washington to discuss ways of "weakening the Syrian regime," a pan-Arab newspaper reported yesterday. The Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper said US officials who attended the meeting on Thursday included Elizabeth Cheney, deputy assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, and John Hanna, an official in the office of her father, Vice President Dick Cheney. The paper said Elizabeth's office confirmed the meeting, which was also attended by Pentagon and National Security Council officials, and comes at a time when the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad is under mounting US pressure to end its grip over neighboring Lebanon. Cheney's office, however, refused to give details.Participants on the Syrian side included Farid Al-Ghadri, a US-based businessman who heads the Reform Party of Syria, Zuhdi Al-Jasser, Mohammad Khawam, Muwaffak Bunni Al-Marjeh, Hussam Al-Dairi, Salma Al-Dairi and writer Bassam Darwish. Asharq Al-Awsat said the dissidents lobbied for a policy of regime change in Syria, whereas the administration officials focused on ways of weakening Assad's government. The two sides also discussed the possibility of "holding to account" current and former Syrian officials for "committing crimes against the Syrian people."