Jordan's King Abdullah said in remarks published on Saturday he had struggled to improve ties with Syria since Bashar al-Assad became president in 2000. Syria's relations with Jordan deteriorated in 1994 when Jordan signed a peace deal with Israel. Abdullah said he had wanted to improve ties in 2000, when former president Hafez al-Assad died and was replaced by his son. "Frankly, I cannot say that they are excellent," Abdullah told the London-based al-Hayat newspaper when asked about ties with his northern neighbour. "I was intent, since President Bashar al-Assad became president, to turn a new page with Syria, the title of which would be confidence and working for what is in the interest of the two brotherly countries," he said. "But unfortunately we did not find a translation on the ground to the good intentions we were hearing," he said. Relations were strained again in April this year when Jordan discovered an arms cache that it said belonged to Palestinian militant group Hamas and had been smuggled across the border from Syria.