WASHINGTON - Top US officials on Sunday cautiously welcomed Syria's pledge to withdraw its troops from Lebanon but insisted that Washington will continue pushing Damascus to leave its neighbor before May elections.
In a round of US television talk shows, US Secretary of State Condoleezza and White House national security adviser Stephen Hadley said Syria should comply with a UN resolution calling for its withdrawal from Lebanon.
But they cautiously welcomed Syria's pledge to pull out.
"Obviously there are some positive elements to this. It is positive that Syria would begin to withdraw its forces out of Lebanon, not just to the border," Rice told ABC television.
The United States, however, will "continue to press" Damascus to fully comply with UN resolution 1559, she said.
"That means that all troops need to be out, and they need to be out on a timetable that is expeditious," she told CBS.
Special UN envoy Terje Roed-Larsen on Saturday disclosed after a meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that the Syrian leader has now agreed to fulfill the terms of the resolution and to withdraw his military and intelligence units.
No date for the withdrawal was disclosed, however.
Lebanese President Emile Lahoud on Sunday met with Larsen and pledged to work with the United Nations to secure a full withdrawal of the estimated 14,000 Syrian troops and intelligence operatives from Lebanon.
But Lahoud also insisted that it was up to Lebanese and Syrian authorities to set the date for a final withdrawal that would end a near three-decade military presence.
"The key here is to remove from Lebanon the artificial impact of Syrian forces and Syrian intelligence offices," Rice said. "And I would note too that Mr. Larsen apparently got a pledge that this would include intelligence forces and that's very important."
Hadley said "initial reports are encouraging."
But, he told Fox News, "At the end of the day, it's going to be deeds, not words, that matter."
"It needs to be full and complete withdrawal," he added. "Our position is it needs to be done as soon as possible so that the elections can be free, fair and free of outside influence," Hadley said.
Syrian units entered Lebanon 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.
Calls for Syria's withdrawal intensified following the February 14 assassination of former prime minister Rafiq Hariri, whose killing has been blamed by many in Lebanon on Syria and sparked street protests for Syria to leave.
Syrian authorities have denied involvement in the assassination.
Massive pro-Syria demonstrations led by the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah have also taken place, including Sunday when tens of thousands of Lebanese rallied to denounce the UN resolution.
Rice reiterated that Washington still viewed Hezbollah as a "terrorist" organization despite its strong political influence in Lebanon.
"Not in any dimension have we changed our view of Hezbollah. We consider it a terrorist organization," she told NBC television.
"What we're concentrating on is getting Syrian forces out under Resolution 1559 and then allowing the Lebanese people to have a process that will, I think, reveal what the real balance of forces is in Lebanon," she said.
03/13/2005 17:46 GMT