by Adnane Zaka
DAMASCUS - Syria was to start redeploying its troops in Lebanon after a Damascus meeting between their two presidents on Monday in the hope of easing stifling international pressure for a full withdrawal.
The meeting between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his Lebanese counterpart Emile Lahoud was to come two days after Assad told parliament that his 14,000 troops in Lebanon would redeploy to the Syrian border.
Lebanon's outgoing Defence Minister Abdel Rahim Mrad said Sunday that Syria would start after the meeting the much-awaited pullback of troops in Lebanon who have been stationed there for 29 years.
"The redeployment to the Bekaa will start after the meeting of the Syrian-Lebanese (supreme) council which should take place on Monday in Damascus," Mrad told reporters.
The Syrian president has not made clear whether the troops would cross over into Syria once they had reached the border, prompting calls from the United States and France for an unambiguous pledge for an immediate and full withdrawal.
In Syria, newspapers expressed hope that Assad's speech would earn the country a breathing space in the face of unrelenting pressure from the United States.
"In taking this historic decision, Syria will have, in the eyes of the objective world, honoured its engagements. In this way, we will be able to face current problems and the problems that will come," the government daily Tishrin said.
"While congratulating Syria for the courageous decision that it has taken, we ask the world in exchange to pay her back and stop damaging her," it added.
However the United States, which has repeatedly called for a full and immediate withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon, said it had been left disappointed by Assad's keenly awaited speech to parliament.
"It's clear to us, not just the United States, but the international community, that his words are insufficient," State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said on Al-Hurra television.
"We have not heard the words: 'immediate and full withdrawal'," he told the US-financed Arab satellite channel.
Ereli insisted Damascus must comply with the demands of UN Resolution 1559 and called on Syria to withdraw from Lebanon and stop influencing the country's politics.
French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier said Assad's pledge was important but warned that" we expect to see precise and concrete acts."
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw welcomed Syria's pledge to withdraw its troops in Lebanon to the border but called it a "first step" that should take place as soon as possible.
Syria must provide a "specific timetable" for the withdrawal "as soon as possible", the European Union's top foreign policy representative Javier Solana said Sunday.
However Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, head of the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah, said after a Beirut meeting of pro-Damascus groups they were opposed to an immediate and full withdrawal as Lebanon was still in a "state of war" with Israel.
Since the assassination in a Beirut bomb blast of former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri last month provoked an upsurge in anti-Syrian sentiment, Washington and Paris have led the international campaign against Damascus's presence in Lebanon.
Syria and its Lebanese allies have been widely blamed for Hariri's murder, and mass public protests have already forced the resignation of the Beirut government.
Assad himself described the murder as a "heinous crime".
The United Nations said UN special envoy Terje Roed-Larsen would travel to Damascus next week to press for a full Syrian withdrawal.
"As an extension of measures already taken ... we will withdraw our forces stationed in Lebanon to the Bekaa Valley and then to the border" with Syria, Assad said in the hour-long speech.
"I have agreed with President Emile Lahoud that the Supreme Council on Security should meet this week to approve the withdrawal plan and then we will have fulfilled our obligations under the Taef accord and under Resolution 1559."
Syria has long argued that it needs to retain troops in Lebanon because of Israel's continued occupation of the Golan Heights, seized from Damascus in the 1967 Middle East war.
The troops entered Lebanon in 1976 to try to restore peace during that country's 15-year long civil war which finally ended in 1990 under the Taef agreement.
This provided for a phased redeployment of the Syrian forces but set no timetable, leaving it to agreement between Beirut and Damascus. In a series of redeployments, Syrian troop numbers have fallen from a maximum of 40,000 to 14,000.

03/06/2005 14:37 GMT