Syria is close to completing its withdrawal from neighbouring Lebanon, Syrian and Lebanese officials say.
More than 100 military vehicles, including tanks and personnel carriers, left on Saturday, witnesses said.
Unnamed officials said the troops would leave Lebanon by Monday - five days before Damascus' deadline of 30 April.
Syria has been under intense Lebanese and international pressure to withdraw since the killing of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri on 14 February.
Opposition politicians and many Lebanese believe Syria was behind the deadly car bomb and that the Lebanese security services, which have tended to come under Syria's sway, were somehow involved.
Syria says it was not involved, and security service officials deny any wrongdoing.
The United Nations Security Council is conducting an investigation into Hariri's death.
An initial fact-finding mission concluded that Lebanon's own investigation, carried out by the Lebanese security services, suffered from "serious flaws" and could not reach a credible conclusion.
Syrian troops have been in Lebanon for 29 years.