Syria pull-back to start today

Lebanon says Syria will start pulling back its forces in the country today, as the United States warned it would not accept any half measures by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Under intense international pressure, Mr Assad announced plans on Saturday for a complete withdrawal of troops from Lebanon but said Damascus would play a role in its neighbour's affairs.

"The withdrawal starts Monday," Lebanese Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Mrad told Reuters, adding that forces would pull-back from northern Lebanon and Mount Lebanon in accordance with the Taif Accord that ended Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war.

Mr Mrad said yesterday the pullback would start immediately after a meeting in Damascus between leaders of both countries to approve Mr Assad's plan for a swift two-phased withdrawal.

The United States has been wary of Mr Assad's plans. The White House said yesterday that, with its allies, it would not stand by as Mr Assad takes "half measures" in Lebanon, promising to step up pressure for a complete and immediate withdrawal.

"The international community is not going to stand by and let (Mr) Assad continue to have these kind of half measures," White House counsellor Dan Bartlett said."

The US administration has taken issue with Syria's lack of a timetable and vague reference to a continuing role in Lebanon, despite the announced withdrawal.

"Something that he didn't mention is Syrian secret services and intelligence officials that really keep the clamp of fear in the Lebanese people, to fully withdraw as well," Mr Bartlett said.

US President George W. Bush is considering new unilateral sanctions, including freezing Syrian assets, US officials say, and Washington was discussing "next steps" with European allies.

Many Lebanese greeted Mr Assad's announcement with delight in central Beirut and the media said the plan was a historic move opening a new chapter after 30 years of Syrian domination.

Lebanese opposition figures and European leaders cautiously described the move as positive.

"We wake up in Lebanon today to a new political reality, the opening of a new phase in the country's history," said As-Safir newspaper in a front-page editorial yesterday.

Mr Assad said Syrian troops would initially pull back to the Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon and then to the border area.

"By this measure Syria would have fulfilled its commitment towards the Taif Accord and implemented (UN Security Council) Resolution 1559," he told the Syrian parliament.

The Taif Accord ended Lebanon's civil war and, among other points, stipulated the withdrawal of Syrian troops from most of the country within two years.

Resolution 1559, adopted last September by the UN Security Council at the initiative of the United States and France, calls for foreign troops to quit Lebanon completely.

Syrian cabinet minister Buthaina Shaaban said troops would withdraw to the Syrian side of the border "as soon as possible logistically".

Syria has been in Lebanon since intervening in the civil war in the 1970s and has some 14,000 troops there, down from 40,000.

The militant pro-Syrian Hizbollah group dismissed calls in Resolution 1559 for its disarmament.

"The resistance will not give up its arms... because Lebanon needs the resistance to defend it," Hizbollah chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said after a meeting of loyalist groups.

After the civil war, various Christian, Muslim and Druze militias were disbanded but Hizbollah, the main guerilla force fighting Israeli occupation in the south at the time, was allowed to keep its arms.