US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice today offered to help Lebanon hold free and fair elections and hinted at the possibility of international security assistance if Syria withdraws its troops.
Speaking after the collapse of the Syrian-backed Lebanese government yesterday, Ms Rice and French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier repeated a United Nations-backed call for Syria to withdraw its 14,000 troops from Lebanon.
Lebanese Prime Minister Omar Karami resigned after two weeks of protests ignited by the assassination of his predecessor Rafik al-Hariri.
Many Lebanese blame the bombing that killed him on Syria, their country's long-time power broker. Damascus denies involvement.
"Events in Lebanon are moving in a very important direction. The Lebanese people are starting to express their aspirations for democracy. . . . This is something that we support very much," Ms Rice told reporters at a London conference on the Middle East.
"We will focus very much . . . on what we can help the Lebanese do. That means support for free and fair elections, that means election observers if necessary, monitoring if necessary," she added, alluding to general elections in May.