Europe will "pay the price" if it delivers arms to rebel forces in Syria, President Bashar al-Assad said in an interview with a German newspaper.

"If the Europeans deliver weapons, the backyard of Europe will become terrorist and Europe will pay the price for it," he said in an advance extract of an interview due to be published in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

He also warned that delivering arms would result in the export of "terrorism" to Europe.

In his first comments since the United States announced on Thursday that they would be supplying military aid to rebels fighting for his overthrow, Assad said: "Terrorists will gain experience in combat and return with extremist ideologies."

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