The Middle East is diseased with stagnation and its leaders must “upgrade” themselves and their societies to keep up with the demands of their people, Syrian President Bashir al-Assad said yesterday.

“We have took keep up with this change, as a state and institutions,” said Mr Assad in a rare interview with the Wall Street Journal newspaper as protests in Egypt entered their seventh day.

“You have to upgrade yourself with the upgrading of the society. This is the most important headline.”

Many analysts see Syria – “in the middle of the Middle East,” in Mr Assad’s words – as a potential bell-weather for how other Arab leaders will respond to demands for change.

“Real reform is about how to open up society and how to start dialogue,” said Mr Assad, who took power in July 2000 after the death of his father, Hafez al-Assad, who himself ruled Syria for three decades.

Decades of political and economic stagnation, ideologically weak leaders, foreign interventions and war have driven the discontent that exploded in the streets of Tunisia and Egypt, he said.

“If you have stagnant water, you will have pollution and microbes, and because you have had this stagnation for decades... we were plagued with microbes,” said Mr Assad, 45, drawing metaphors from his background in medicine.

“So what you have been seeing in this region is a kind of disease. That is how we see it.”

This month’s uprising in Tunisia inspired the ongoing revolt in Egypt, analysts say, prompting speculation that the Arab world is on the threshold of a period of greater democracy.

“It is a new era,” said Mr Assad, “but it did not start now. It started with the Iranian revolution. What is new is that it is happening inside independent countries in the Arab world”.

The Syrian leader refused to address events in Tunisia and Egypt directly, saying it was too early to judge their impact on the region, but he said the situation in his own country was stable.

“Syria is stable although it has more difficult conditions than Egypt, which enjoys financial support from the United States while Syria is under embargo by most countries of the world,” he said.

Sketching out his vision in Syria, Assad said 2011 would see political reforms geared towards municipal elections, as well as a new media law and relaxed licensing requirements for non-governmental organisations.

“You cannot have a democracy that is built on the moods of self-interested people,” said Mr Assad. “So the beginning is dialogue and the institutions.”

He said Arab societies had become more closed-minded since the 1980s, leading to extremism and less development and openess. The challenge for leaders was how to open societies and build up institutions.

“If you didn’t see the need of reform before what happened in Egypt and Tunisia, it’s too late to do any reform,” he said, cautioning however against rushing through reforms in response to events in those two countries.

When he took power, Mr Assad hinted in his inaugural speech at a new era of openess and reform for Syria, but the so-called Damascus Spring by most accounts was brief.

Main conflicts, crises and flashpoints in Africa

Tunisia

A month of violent protests that resulted in dozens of deaths forced authoritarian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to flee the country on January 14, ending his 23 year-rule. Prime Minister Mohammed Ghannouchi caved in to pressure from demonstrators on Thursday by forming a new Cabinet backed by the powerful labour union UGTT.

Egypt

Since January 25 Egypt has been facing unprecedented protests challenging President Hosni Mubarak’s three-decade rule and his perpetual state of emergency. Mr Mubarak’s announcement on Friday of a government reshuffle failed to appease public anger.

Ivory coast

The Ivory Coast is mired in a two-month-old power struggle between incumbent strongman Laurent Gbagbo and Alassane Ouattara, the internationally recognised winner of disputed November elections. More than 270 people lost their lives during the violence that erupted from the stalemate, according to the UN.

Somalia

Ravaged by a two-decade-old civil war, the al-Shebab insurgent group controls most of the country while the government commands only a few sections of the capital thanks to the presence of African Union forces. The insurgents killed 76 people in double blasts last July in Uganda’s capital Kampala, in retaliation for its major role in the African Union’s peacekeeping mission.

Sudan

An overwhelming majority of South Sudanese voted in favour of independence in January elections, following a 2005 peace treaty that ended two decades of civil war. Meanwhile, the International Criminal Court has issued two warrants for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir’s arrest on charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in Darfur, which has been gripped by civil war since 2003.

Democratic Republic of Congo

Conflicts between armed groups in the country’s eastern region have been continuing for over a decade. DRC soldiers are routinely accused of rape and looting.

Central African Republic

The Central African Republic held elections on January 23 in a bid to end years of instability, but the results are contested. Rebels of Uganda’s Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), who have been active since 1988, have installed units in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo as well as the Central African Republic.

Burundi

Scarred from a decade of civil war (1993-2006) that killed 300,000 people, the country has been in a political deadlock since contested 2010 elections which returned the ruling party to power.

Nigeria

Attacks against oil refineries in the country’s south forced production in the world’s eighth biggest oil exporter to slump since 2006. Nigeria is often the scene of ethnic and religious conflicts.

Madagascar

The country has been mired in a political crisis since late 2008 after President Marc Ravalomanana was ousted and replaced by his army-backed rival Andry Rajoelina.

Sahel

In the north African Sahel region, the group Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQMI) operates in a vast desert zone around Mauritania, Algeria, Mali and Niger. The insurgent group, which currently holds seven people hostage, said it was behind the kidnapping of two French men, who were killed amid a French-backed rescue operation.