DAMASCUS - UN special envoy Terje Roed-Larsen will not back up calls for a Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon with threats on his Damascus mission this weekend, a spokesman for the world body said Friday.
According to the Washington Post, he will give Syrian President Bashar al-Assad an ultimatum when they meet Saturday in Damascus, threatening political and economic isolation if Syria does not fully withdraw from Lebanon.
But Roed-Larsen, "by the nature of his mandate and that of the secretary general, cannot carry threats", Beirut-based spokesman Nejib Friji told AFP, contacted from Damascus.
He said Roed-Larsen would "repeat the positions he expressed during his last meetings with Syrian and Lebanese officials as well as the Lebanese opposition, calling for dialogue, cooperation and calm".
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said Thursday that his envoy would ask Damascus for a date for the withdrawal of its troops required under Security Council Resolution 1559.
"I hope the envoy will be able to come back with a timetable," he said.
Roed-Larsen has been charged with overseeing the implementation of Resolution 1559, passed by the Security Council last year, which demands Syria's withdrawal as well as the disarming of militant groups like Hezbollah.
A Lebanese military source said Friday that Syrian troops had completely withdrawn from all their positions in northern Lebanon and only the intelligence service offices had yet to be evacuated.
The first phase of a Syrian redeployment, carried out in the face of burgeoning global and local pressure, began Tuesday and was to last a week to 10 days.
The pullback to eastern Lebanon affects 6,000 troops stationed in northern Lebanon and the mountains overlooking Beirut and is seen as a prelude to the departure of all of Syria's estimated 14,000 soldiers from Lebanese territory.
03/11/2005 15:37 GMT