by Roueida Mabardi
DAMASCUS - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, under intense international pressure over Lebanon, has agreed to a withdrawal of all military and intelligence personnel from the country, a UN envoy said Saturday.
"The president has committed to withdrawing all troops and intelligence services from Lebanon in fulfilment of Security Council Resolution 1559," Terje Roed-Larsen said after talks with Assad.
He said he would present UN Secretary General Kofi Annan with details of the timetable for the two-stage withdrawal when he returns to New York early next week, although he did not disclose a timeframe for the final phase.
Annan had sent Roed-Larsen to secure a firm date for a complete pullout by Syria, which has held political and military sway over its tiny neighbour for almost 30 years.
Roed-Larsen`s meeting with Assad in the northern city of Aleppo came after convoys of Syrian troops returned home in a partial pullout of the 14,000-strong force in Lebanon.
"The first stage will see the relocation of all military forces and intelligence apparatus to the Bekaa valley by the end of March. Further, a significant number of these Syrian forces, including intelligence (personnel), will be withdrawn from Lebanon into Syria during this stage," the envoy said.
"The second stage will lead to a complete and full withdrawal of all Syrian military personnel, assets and intelligence apparatus," he said in a statement read to AFP in Beirut.
Roed-Larsen had travelled to Syria from Beirut, where he expressed his condolences Friday to the family of slain former Lebanese prime minister and billionaire businessman Rafiq Hariri.
Hariri`s February 14 assassination in a massive bomb blast in Beirut triggered a major political upheaval in Lebanon and intensified international pressure on Damascus to end its powerful grip on its smaller neighbour.
In Beirut, pro-Syrian prime minister Omar Karameh -- reappointed just 10 days after standing down in the face of massive public protests following Hariri`s murder -- is still struggling to form a new government.
The opposition, which accuses the Lebanese regime and its political masters in Damascus of having a hand in Hariri`s killing, has so far rebuffed his calls for a national unity government.
Roed-Larsen is charged with overseeing implementation of Resolution 1559, which was passed in September, and calls for the withdrawal of foreign troops as well as the disarming of militant groups such as the Shiite Muslim Hezbollah militia.
The Washington Post had reported Friday that Roed-Larsen, a Norwegian diplomat, would give Assad an ultimatum, threatening political and economic isolation if Syria does not fully withdraw from Lebanon.
But a spokesman for the world body said Roed-Larsen would do no such thing.
"By the nature of his mandate and that of the secretary general, (the UN envoy) cannot carry threats," Beirut-based UN spokesman Nejib Friji told AFP.
Early Saturday, a convoy of Syrian military vehicles carrying troops and equipment crossed the Lebanese-Syrian border, greeted by a a cheering crowd waving Syrian flags and shouting pro-Assad slogans.
Late Friday the Syrian army had evacuated all its positions in northern Lebanon except for six known intelligence positions under the first phase of a redeployment that began Tuesday and was to last a week to 10 days.
Assad had previously pledged to pull back the troops and an unknown number of intelligence forces in Lebanon to the eastern Bekaa Valley, where the other Syrian soldiers are already based, by the end of March.
The pullback 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.
Syrian forces entered the country in 1976 to serve as a buffer between warring factions early in the 1975-1990 Lebanese civil war and their numbers reached a peak of 40,000 troops before a series of partial withdrawals.
Syria`s ambassador to the United States said Tuesday that the troops would be out of Lebanon by May, when legislative elections are due to be held.

03/12/2005 11:48 GMT