Syrian troops in border town on Syrian soil, not Lebanese: PM

BEIRUT - A preliminary investigation has shown that Syrian troops deployed in a border area are on Syrian soil, not Lebanese land, Lebanese officials said Tuesday.
"The concerned security services informed Prime Minister Nagib Miqati this evening (Tuesday) of the preliminary results of the verification process of Syrian troops deployed in the eastern border region of Deir el-Aashayer and Kfarquq," the prime minister's office said in a statement.
"The verification showed that these positions are inside Syrian territory," it added in a statement issued a day before Miqati was due to visit Damascus.
On Monday, Miqati said in the French newspaper Le Monde that Syrian troops were still deployed in Deir el-Aashayer and that the location was inside Lebanese territory.
The official Syrian news agency SANA said Tuesday that Lebanon and Syria had decided to set up a joint military commission to probe the claims.

05/03/2005 18:31 GMT