BEIRUT - Beirut vowed Friday to cooperate with a UN commission set up to probe the killing of ex-premier Rafiq Hariri as Syria pressed a troop withdrawal due to be completed by the end of the month.
In a surprise move on the sidelines of Pope John Paul II`s funeral in Rome, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad shook hands with his Israeli counterpart Moshe Katzav -- a first for the two countries, which remain officially at war.
Katzav also spoke to archfoe Iran`s president Mohammad Khatami, whose country joined with Syria in sponsoring Shiite militant group Hezbollah, which spearheaded resistance to Israel`s two-decade occupation of south Lebanon.
Foreign Minister Mahmud Hammoud said Lebanon was "ready to cooperate with the (UN) commission in order to help it achieve its mission in the best way and as soon as possible.
"There are no obstacles to cooperation as long as the United Nations takes Lebanon`s sovereignty into consideration, and Lebanon has declared its sincere desire for a full cooperation," Hammoud said.
The UN Security Council set up the commission Thursday to probe Hariri`s murder which Lebanon`s anti-Syrian opposition blames on government agents and their political masters in Daamscus, despite strong denials from both regimes.
Lebanon was thrown into political turmoil by the February 14 assassination which sparked anti-Syrian protests and led to the resignation of the pro-Syrian government.
Prime Minister-designate Omar Karameh is now expected to announce a new government next week which the opposition hopes will make the necessary arrangements for parliamentary elections to go ahead by an end-of-May deadline.
Security Council Resolution 1595 came after a UN fact-finding mission into the assassination found that Lebanon`s own investigation was flawed and roundly criticised Syria for creating a climate of tension ahead of the huge blast on the Beirut seafront that also killed 18 other people.
Late Thursday, a member of Hariri`s bloc in parliament, Ghinwa Jalloul hailed the opening of the UN inquiry.
"We welcome the resolution if the inquiry committee is given all executive, investigative and judiciary prerogatives to uncover the whole truth about the crime, and uncovers its perpetrators and organizers."
Diplomatic sources in New York said it could take several weeks to assemble the necessary police and legal experts.
Syria meanwhile quickened its troop pullout from the Bekaa valley of eastern Lebanon a day after its information minister, Mahdi Dakhlallah, vowed it would be completed well before an April 30 deadline agreed with the United Nations.
During the night, an AFP correspondent saw more than 50 Syrian military trucks, full of soldiers and equipment, crossing the border.
Syrian troops were seen evacuating radar and artillery positions in Hadath Baalbek and Majdal Anjar, and positions in the northern Hermel and southern Western Bekaa districts.
The troops also took home a statue of late Syrian president Hafez al-Assad, who first deployed Syrian troops to Lebanon in 1976 in the early stages of the civil war.
Resolution 1559 passed by the Security Council last September required the withdrawal of all foreign troops from Lebanon. Syria announced on Sunday that the last of its troops would be out this month.
With them are leaving hundreds of Syrian migrant workers, who for years have filled Lebanon`s lowest paid jobs. A spate of attacks by Lebanese hardliners has prompted the exodus.
Overnight, unknown assailants set fire to 13 tents where Syrian workers had been living in the village of Abdeh in the northern Akkar district after telling the labourers to leave.
In the village of Kfarmishki in the western Bekaa, an anonymous letter threatened Syrian workers, telling them "to leave Lebanon quickly, before it is too late." The workers filed a complaint at a nearby police station.

04/08/2005 13:46 GMT