PARIS - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is to announce within days a timetable for the withdrawal of the remainder of his forces in Lebanon, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said Thursday.
"I have had several conversations with the Syrian president and my last one one was yesterday in Algiers," where an Arab summit took place, Mubarak told France 3 television during a visit to Paris.
"The Syrian president is implementing (UN Security Council) Resolution 1559," which calls for the withdrawal of his country's troops from Lebanon, said the Egyptian leader.
Assad will give "within a week a timetable for the withdrawal of all of his forces from Lebanon", he said.
"I told him that it should take place before the (Lebanese legislative) elections (due by the end of May) to avoid other problems, and I believe he is fully aware of this," said Mubarak.
"He is determined to withdraw his troops and also the intelligence services which are in Lebanon."
Assad, in an address to the Syrian parliament, announced on March 5 that Damascus would redeploy all its troops in Lebanon to the Syrian border, but without setting a timetable for a full withdrawal.
The first phase of the pullback was completed last Friday, with some 8,000 Syrian troops either withdrawn across the border or to the Bekaa Valley of eastern Lebanon.
About 10,000 remain in the Bekaa, which lies close to the border.
UN chief Kofi Annan, who met Assad on Tuesday on the sidelines of the two-day Arab summit, reiterated his call for a full Syrian troop withdrawal.
"I expect the full withdrawal of Syrian troops, including the intelligence apparatus and military assets, to take place before the Lebanese parliamentary elections," Annan said.
He said his special envoy Terje Roed-Larsen would return to Lebanon and Syria in the first week of April to resume a dialogue he started earlier this month on the implementation of Resolution 1559.
03/24/2005 14:12 GMT