Irish Foreign Minister Micheal Martin will meet with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Monday during a trip to the Middle East that will also take in Lebanon and Abu Dhabi, his office said.

"Syria and Lebanon are two strategically important countries in the region and I look forward to discussing with their leaders the many challenges which the international community faces in the aftermath of the Gaza conflict," Martin said in a statement.

He said he would also be discussing the recent improvement in relations between Damascus and Beirut with their leaders, as well as the indirect contacts formed between Israel and Syria.

In Damascus, Martin will meet with Assad and also hold talks with Foreign Minister Walid Muallem on economic issues. He is also due to meet with Grand Mufti Ahmed Badreddin Hassun, Syria's top Sunni Muslim cleric.

Assad returned to the international fold in July with a visit to Paris for talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose predecessor Jacques Chirac had broken off all high-level contact over the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri in 2005.

Since then, relations with the rest of the international community have thawed, notably with the United States under new President Barack Obama.

Ties with the United States soured under former president George W. Bush amid US charges Damascus was turning a blind eye to the arming of insurgents in Iraq and over its support for militant groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah.

Martin will travel to Lebanon on Tuesday for talks with President Michel Sleiman and Prime Minister Fuad Siniora, and visit troops and Irish officers serving in the United Nations mission in the south, his office said.

He will head to Abu Dhabi that evening in a bid to promote trade deals between the United Arab Emirates and recession-hit Ireland.