BEIRUT - A UN envoy carried out a first inspection Tuesday to verify Syria's pullout from Lebanon as US President George W. Bush threw his weight behind opposition calls for elections to go ahead on time.
Terje Roed-Larsen visited a seafront apartment block in west Beirut occupied by the dreaded Syrian military intelligence until it was evacuated on March 16.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's envoy is tasked with overseeing implementation of Security Council Resolution 1559, under which Syria has promised to complete its troop withdrawal from Lebanon by April 30.
On Monday, the Lebanese authorities approved UN plans to set up an international mission to verify that Syria pulls out all its soldiers and intelligence services.
According to an Arab diplomatic source, the mission would be made up of some 70 inspectors.
Bush, meanwhile, welcomed Syria's pledge of a full pullout. "When they say 'we're going to leave the country', we expect troops and security forces to leave," he said.
The withdrawal will end a 29-year Syrian military presence dating back to the early stages of Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war. Resolution 1559, passed last September, calls for all foreign troops to quit Lebanon.
Suleiman and the Syrian chief of staff, Ali Habib, have decided to start the final phase of the withdrawal on Thursday.
The UN envoy, in meetings on Monday with the pro-Syrian authorities in Beirut, including President Emile Lahoud and Prime Minister-designate Omar Karameh, backed opposition demands that elections take place as scheduled.
Roed-Larsen said he and Lahoud saw "eye to eye" on the need to hold the polls "in a timely fashion" to restore security in Lebanon, where four bomb blasts have rocked Christian opposition areas since last month.
A political crisis sparked by the February 14 assassination of former premier Rafiq Hariri, an advocate of ending Syria's dominant role in Lebanon, left the parliamentary elections in doubt.
A Western diplomatic source said Roed-Larsen was calling in his talks with Lebanese officials for the elections to be held by May 31 when the mandate of the current parliament runs out.
Parliament speaker Nabih Berri, a leader of the anti-Syrian camp, on Monday refused to discuss the elections with Roed-Larsen, arguing that the issue went beyond his mandate.
The envoy also met a key figure in the anti-Syrian opposition, Walid Jumblatt, and was to hold talks with other opposition leaders on Tuesday after the inspection tour.
In Washington, Bush on Monday welcomed the Syrian withdrawal pledge made in talks with Roed-Larsen on Sunday and said that elections were the key next step for Lebanon.
"It's important for this election to take place on time, and we look forward to continue to work with our friends and allies to make sure Lebanon is truly free," he said.
The Lebanese opposition wants a new government to be set up without delay, regardless of its composition or format, to organise the polls and coordinate with a planned UN commission of inquiry into Hariri's murder.
Karameh, who has failed to bring the opposition into a national unity team, was quoted in the Beirut press as saying he could announce a new government by Saturday.
The anti-Syrian camp blames the authorities in Beirut and Damascus for the assassination, a charge repeatedly denied by both parties, which have pointed out that it only increased the pressure for a Syrian pullout.
On Tuesday, some 35 military trucks transporting Syrian troops were seen heading home from Lake Qaraoun in the Bekaa Valley of eastern Lebanon, witnesses said.
04/05/2005 13:47 GMT