The Syrian Foreign Minister has described a raid by American special forces inside Syrian territory as "criminal and terrorist aggression" in a solo press conference following the cancellation of a joint appearance with David Miliband.

Amid a rapidly escalating diplomatic row between Washington, London and Damascus, Walid Muallem warned that, if the US was to launch further cross-border raids, Syria would defend its territory.

Mr Muallem was meant to have held a joint press conference with Mr Miliband following pre-scheduled talks in London but, amid rapidly-escalating fallout following news of the US operation, which killed eight people, it was cancelled.

The Syrian Foreign Minister then used a solo press conference to give his version of events, describing how four US helicopters had mounted a cross-border raid from Iraq last night, opening fire with machine guns and killing eight people that he described as civilians.

The incident has threatened to wreck delicate diplomatic efforts by Britain and France to draw Syria back into the international community. The regime of President Assad has spent years in the wilderness, labelled by the West as a supporter of terrorism. It has been accused of backing Hezbollah guerillas which have launched rocket attacks against Israel from southern Lebanon, and for its apparent links to a number of Lebanon-based assasinations.

Recent moves to restart peace talks with Israel appear to have floundered, and Syria has recently signed a high-profile arms deal with Russia, raising alarm-bells in the West.

"We consider this criminal and terrorist aggression. We put the responsibility on the American government and they need to investigate and return back to us with the result and explanation why they did it," Mr Muallem said.

"And we ask the Iraqi government also to investigate and not to allow (America) to use the Iraqi territories to launch aggression against Syria."

Mr Muallem stopped short however of threatening military reprisals, and said there was no point in taking Syria's grievance to the United Nations Security Council so long as American had a veto there.

Mr Miliband had hoped to use Mr Muallem's long-planned visit to persuade Syria to develop stronger ties with the West, and to persuade it towards a more active role in the search for Middle East peace. But talks today appear to have been dominated by Syrian protest over the American military action.

The US has yet to comment formally on the raid, although US forces in Western Iraq have disclaimed knowledge of it - suggesting that it was carried out by a special unit outside the regular US command structure.

While the Pentagon did not confirm the attack, a US military official said that the raid targeted a network of foreign fighters based at the farm. “We are taking matters into our hands,” the unnamed US official said.

Ali al-Dabbagh, an Iraqi government spokesman, is the only person so far to offer a public explanation of the raid, saying this morning that Syria had failed to act against terror groups.

"The attacked area was the scene of activities of terrorist groups operating from Syria against Iraq," he said. "The latest of these groups... killed 13 police recruits in an (Iraqi) border village. Iraq has asked Syria to hand over this group which uses Syria as a base for its terrorist operations."

Syrian television has screened images of one of the survivors of the raid, the wife of the building guard, lying in hospital with injuries inflicted during machine gun fire. The hospital director said that she was one of three survivors, and that the hospital had also received seven bodies aged between 16 and 50.

Footage from Reuters television has shown the aftermath of the raid - a truck riddled with bulletholes, and bloodstains and spent cartridge cases on the ground at a half-acre fenced farm building. Osama Malla Hameed, a neighbour, said that four helicopters converged on the farm from different directions. Two hovered over it while two landed for a period of less than five minutes, and soldiers got out and fired shots, injuring his nephew in the hand as he rode his motorbike nearby.

America accuses Syria of failing to do enough to stop militants, including al-Qaeda operatives, from infiltrating over the border. The Bou Kamal border area, close to the farm in eastern Syria, is the country’s main crossing point into Iraq.

For his part, Mr Muallem has in the past accused the US of not giving his country the equipment that it needed to prevent foreign fighters from crossing into Iraq. He said that the US feared Syria could use such equipment against Israel.

The reported attack comes at a particularly sensitive time, as Baghdad and Washington struggle to sign an agreement to allow US troops to stay in Iraq beyond this year.

Mr Muallem today voiced his concern once more that such an accord would enable the US military to attack Syria from Iraqi territory - a charge that US officials deny.

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