BEIRUT - As a new era dawns following the exit of Syrian troops, Lebanon faces the multiple challenges of holding key elections, redefining its relations with Syria and sorting out its debt-ridden economy.
Syria, which dominated its tiny neighbour for the past 29 years, has virtually completed the withdrawal of its troops, except for a small force staying to take part in an official send-off Tuesday.
"A new page is turning in the nature of the relations between Lebanon and Syria," opposition MP Marwan Hamadeh told AFP.
The Syrian withdrawal "should leave space for a new form of relations, of which military and security aspects should be at the top of common interests," said the former minister, who escaped an assassination attempt in October.
That abortive attack and the successful assassination a few months later of five-time prime minister Rafiq Hariri were seen by many Lebanese as the work of the Lebanese-Syrian security apparatus and evidence of its iron grip on their political life.
"It is not resentment against Syria which we feel today," Hamadeh said.
"It is rather the hope that relations between two countries, so close, would be from now on a track towards mutual respect of sovereignty."
His comments reflect a widespread concern within the Lebanese opposition to maintain correct relations with their powerful neighbour.
The Beirut press split down the middle in its response to the prospect of the last Syrian soldier heading home.
"A few hours from now, and a new era will start in Lebanon," read the headline in the French-language L'Orient-Le Jour newspaper.
"Thirty years of Syrian presence will be over in a few hours," said the top-selling An-Nahar.
Newspapers loyal to Damascus did not share the joy.
"It is a miserable end of an era on different fronts -- political, economic, cultural, educational, military and security," the owner of the As-Safir daily, Talal Salman, wrote bitterly.
The Al-Sharq newspaper said it was now time for Lebanese "to examine their consciences," arguing that a "free and independent Lebanon cannot be forged by relying on the might of the United States and others."
It was the United States, along with France, which co-sponsored last September's UN Security Council resolution demanding the withdrawal of all foreign troops and which is now leading calls for parliamentary elections due by the end of May to go ahead on time.
The opposition is widely expected to sweep those polls amid the public anger sparked by Hariri's murder.
But it is a very loose alliance of widely differing Christian, Druze and Sunni factions, with little by way of common programme beyond their determination to see next month's election go ahead on time and the pro-Syrian old guard at the head of the intelligence services removed.
And Lebanon's debt-ridden economy has no time to wait if it is to avoid collapse.
Despite repeatedly pledging reforms and privatisations at meetings with its international donors, successive governments have failed to deliver and the national debt now stands at 35 billion dollars.
04/25/2005 17:36 GMT