Syria to give Lebanon pullout timetable

DAMASCUS - A UN envoy says Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has promised to withdraw all his troops and intelligence agents from Lebanon in line with a UN resolution and was providing details of the timetable.

"I am much encouraged by President Assad's commitment to the full implementation of Security Council resolution 1559," Terje Roed-Larsen said after meeting Assad in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo.

"I will present the Secretary-General Kofi Annan with further details of the timetable for a complete Syrian pullout from Lebanon upon my arrival in New York early next week."

Facing intense global pressure, Assad said last week Syria would withdraw its troops from its tiny neighbour in two phases, first pulling back to eastern Lebanon by March 31, then agreeing with the Lebanese on the timing of a full withdrawal.

By Friday, all Syrian troops had left northern Lebanon, ending an unbroken 29-year presence there and underlining Syria's diminishing role in its tiny neighbour. More troops headed home or moved nearer the border overnight.

Small crowds of Syrians waving national flags welcomed the returning soldiers, showering them with rice and flowers as they crossed the border in the early hours, witnesses said.

Roed-Larsen said the United Nations had reached an understanding with Assad that the two-phase pullout plan would include Syrian military and intelligence personnel and assets.

The first stage would see troops and intelligence agents pull back to eastern Lebanon by the end of March, with a significant number also leaving the country. The second stage would see a "complete and full withdrawal".

"We reached the following understandings: The president has committed to withdrawing all Syrian troops and intelligence from Lebanon in fulfilment of Security Council resolution 1559," he said in a statement read to Reuters by a UN official.

"The withdrawal of Syrian forces will be carried through in two stages," the statement said.

"It means that Syria is leaving Lebanon," he later told CNN. "I would say ... this is now an irreversible fact."

TALKS IN LEBANON

The United States and France, divided over Iraq, joined forces in September to push through resolution 1559, which demands foreign troops leave Lebanon, but sets no deadline.

The assassination in Beirut last month of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik al-Hariri sparked daily protests in Beirut against the Syrians, whom some blame for the killing, and redoubled international calls for the Syrians to leave.

US President George W. Bush has demanded that Syrian troops, along with its less visible intelligence agents, leave before Lebanon's general election due in May.

Roed-Larsen will meet Lebanese officials on Sunday. He last visited Lebanon and Syria days before Hariri's February 14 killing to ask that Damascus comply with the resolution.

Lebanon's defence minister has said the first phase of the withdrawal will be completed next week.

Syrian forces first entered Lebanon in 1976. Their numbers have since declined from a peak of 40,000 to some 14,000.

Russia says it backs a withdrawal but is reluctant to set deadlines. Its UN ambassador Andrei Denisov told Reuters it was "reasonable" for troops to withdraw by May, but added:

"We think there is no need to fix any timetable. It is better to encourage them to act expeditiously."

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Friday the withdrawal so far fell short of US demands for a full pullout.

"It's not a bad thing that Syrian forces are moving -- clearly not a bad thing -- but it is also not compliance with 1559," she told Reuters.

"If there's an ultimatum, it's 1559. It's get out."

- REUTERS