INTERNATIONAL Envoy says Assad is committed to withdrawing all troops from Lebanon
Bush wants Syria out before Lebanon's elections in April and May.
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) -- President Bashar Assad reiterated his commitment to withdrawing all Syrian troops and intelligence agents from Lebanon, a U.N. envoy said Saturday, adding he would present a timetable for the pullout at the United Nations next week.
U.N. envoy Terje Roed-Larsen did not give any details after meeting with Assad in the northern city of Aleppo but indicated he had received a timetable for the pullout.
"I will present U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan with further details of the timetable for a complete Syrian pullout from Lebanon upon arrival in New York early next week," Roed-Larsen said in a statement.
The meeting in Aleppo, 220 miles north of the capital, Damascus, was attended by Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa and his deputy Walid al-Moualem, the Syrian Arab News Agency said.
Roed-Larsen's visit came after Syria began this week, under international pressure, pulling its 14,000 troops back to Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley. It plans to negotiate later with the Lebanese government on their complete removal from the country.
A long convoy of vehicles carrying Syrian soldiers returned home amid a heavy snowfall early Saturday to the cheers of Syrian well-wishers, who chanted "Syria! Syria!" handed out flowers and threw rice.
Roed-Larsen said the meeting was "very constructive" and he was "much encouraged by President Assad's commitment to the full implementation" of the U.N. Security Council resolution calling for Syria's immediate withdrawal from Lebanon.
Upcoming elections
President Bush wants Syria to move out before Lebanon's parliamentary elections scheduled to take place in April and May.
The 15-nation Security Council is to receive a report next month on Syria's implementation of the resolution and will then consider next steps, which as a last resort could include sanctions if it deems Syria to have flouted the demands.
Despite the pullout from the north of Lebanon, nine Syrian intelligence offices remain open there, including in the towns of Tripoli, Akkar, Minye and Amyoun. Plainclothes intelligence agents operate from the guarded offices in apartment buildings and deal directly with Lebanese.
Last week, Assad announced a two-stage pullback of Syrian forces from Lebanon. Syrian and Lebanese presidents agreed later that Syrian troops will redeploy to the eastern Bekaa Valley by the end of March but did not say when they will withdraw from Lebanon completely.
Roed-Larsen said the redeployment to the Bekaa Valley before the end of this month will include the withdrawal of "a significant number of these Syrian troops, including intelligence," from Lebanon into Syria.
"The second stage will lead to a complete and full withdrawal of all Syrian military personnel and the intelligence apparatus," said the U.N. envoy, who added that he will continue his dialogue with Assad and other concerned parties.
Roed-Larsen's visit to Syria is the fourth leg in a Middle East tour that has already taken him to Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon, to which he would return after his meetings with Syrian officials.
Protesters
Meanwhile in Beirut, around 11,000 protesters from opposition groups carrying colored paper boards gathered across the street from Hariri's tomb in the central Martyrs Square to form a huge Lebanese red, white and green flag. They chanted "freedom, truth, national unity."
Chants of "Syria we love you" erupted from about 300 men, women and children as 62 military trucks hauling supplies, eight buses loaded with soldiers and jeeps carrying officers crossed into Syria at Jedeidet Yabous. The convoy included a battle tank on a flatbed truck.
Soldiers responded by flashing victory signs. One climbed atop a vehicle to hold a picture of Assad. A Syrian officer at the border, speaking on condition of anonymity, said about 1,000 soldiers made the crossing.
Osama Jaroudi, 50, came with his wife and four children from Damascus to welcome the troops and show support.
"It appears this opposition has links abroad because what they have done was not natural," Jaroudi said, referring to the street protests in Beirut that demanded Syrian troops leave the country.
Pro-Syrian groups held a massive demonstration in Beirut on Tuesday to counter the weeks of anti-Syrian protests sparked by the Feb. 14 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
Many in the Lebanese opposition have blamed Syria and the pro-Syrian Lebanese government for the assassination of Hariri in a powerful bombing on a Beirut street that also killed 17 others. Both governments vehemently denied the charge and condemned the killing of Lebanon's most prominent politician.
Syria sent troops to its smaller neighbor in 1976 to help quell a year-old civil war and has redeployed them six times since 2000. The troops, at times numbering more than 35,000, remained after the war ended in 1990.