WASHINGTON - The White House said Tuesday it saw "some positive steps" towards a Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon, but kept the pressure on Damascus for a total pullout before May parliamentary elections there.
"We want to see Syria out of Lebanon by the elections so those elections can be free and fair without any outside intimidation," spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters.
"There have been some signs that are encouraging, but we need to see by their actions, and not their words, a complete withdrawal," the spokesman said after Syrian military intelligence units began pulling out of Beirut.
Asked for a US assessment of Syrian military and intelligence units seen leaving, McClellan replied: "That's what I'm referring to when I say there have been some positive steps, but we need to see a complete withdrawal."
On Monday, a huge opposition rally in Beirut intensified public pressure for a Syrian pullout after Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told a UN envoy over the weekend that he would call home all his troops and intelligence operatives.
Assad on Saturday gave a commitment to United Nations special envoy Terje Roed-Larsen to comply with Security Council Resolution 1559, which was approved last September and calls for the withdrawal of Syrian troops and intelligence units.
Larsen said he would this week present UN Secretary General Kofi Annan with a timetable for a full Syrian departure from Lebanon, where its troops have been stationed since 1976.
Saturday's pledge was the first time that Assad had mentioned the departure of Syrian intelligence officers, who according to Western experts number between three and four thousand, operating throughout Lebanon.
03/15/2005 14:27 GMT