Lebanon: Tens of thousands of pro-Syrian demonstrators took to the streets of Lebanon yesterday, as Lebanese foreign minister Mahmoud Hammoud announced Syrian troops would not withdraw completely until after a joint meeting of military officers on April 7th.
In Nabatiyeh, southern Lebanon, huge crowds filled a square and nearby streets for a rally led by the militant Shia organisation Hizbullah, its second in less than a week.
Lebanese television showed banners saying "Bush, we don't want your democracy" and "No 1559" - a reference to the UN Security Council resolution that calls for total Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon and the dismantling of Hizbullah's militia. Several demonstrators burned Israeli flags.
Rival anti-Syria protesters took to the streets of Beirut last night and more are expected today - exactly one month after the assassination of former prime minister Rafik Hariri, whose death has been widely blamed on Syria.
The Lebanon-Syria meeting would set the "duration, time and location in these matters" concerning withdrawal, Mr Hammoud said, after talks with UN envoy Terje Roed-Larsen in Beirut. It was the first definitive word from Syria on declaring a timetable for withdrawal.
Mr Roed-Larsen, who visited Damascus on Saturday, indicated that Syrian president Bashar al-Assad had given him a timetable for all troops to leave, but he would not reveal it before reporting to UN secretary general Kofi Annan in New York this week.
The US has been pressing for a full withdrawal before May, when Lebanese elections are due.
Mr Roed-Larsen also met yesterday Lebanon's Syrian-backed president Emile Lahoud, who told him the Lebanese and Syrian leaderships had agreed on measures to secure a withdrawal in line with the 1989 Taif accord that ended the Lebanese civil war.
Syria has been anxious to depict its withdrawal as implementation of the Taif accord rather than capitulation to international pressure.
Mr Lahoud has said Lebanon will not accept the disarming of Hizbullah's militia as demanded by resolution 1559.
US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice cautiously welcomed the "positive development" on agreement to withdraw troops.
White House national security adviser Stephen Hadley said "initial reports are encouraging" and a sign that "Assad is beginning to hear the message. I think we have to take him at his word." But Mr Hadley added: "What we need to see is action and deeds, not just words."
The administration signalled some flexibility about the timing of a full Syrian withdrawal so long as it was expeditious.
About 4,000 of the 14,000 Syrian troops stationed in Lebanon crossed the border into Syria last week, a Lebanese officer said yesterday. "Another 4,000 soldiers in Lebanon's central mountains have redeployed to the Bekka region. This is in addition to 6,000 troops already stationed in the Bekka."
Some 50 trucks and buses loaded with troops crossed from Lebanon into Syria on Saturday night where they were greeted by dancers, drummers and flag-waving children.
Syrian officials had bussed in several hundred people to greet the troops at the Jdeideh border post with rice, flowers and pictures of Mr Assad.
"We came to welcome the heroes, the Syrian Arab army that stood honourably to defend the Arab nation," a sales manager from Damascus told Reuters. "We are happy they are coming back to their country."