The last Syrian forces packed to leave Lebanon yesterday, effectively ending its 29-year military and intelligence domination of its tiny neighbour. Syria withdrew hundreds of soldiers from Lebanon on Sunday, burning documents, knocking down walls and filling in bunkers as it abandoned the last of its military positions in the eastern Bekaa Valley, witnesses said. At least 150 vehicles carrying troops, tanks and artillery crossed the border during the afternoon, they said.

By yesterday morning, only a handful of Syrian intelligence checkpoints and small posts remained, as well as the main Syrian intelligence headquarters in the town of Anjar. Rustum Ghazaleh, Syria’s intelligence chief in Lebanon, and a token Syrian force would be the last to leave after a farewell ceremony in the Bekaa on Tuesday, security sources said, hours before the United Nations issues a report on whether Syria is complying with a Security Council demand that it withdraw.

“There are a couple of hundred left,” a Lebanese security source said. “A few will leave today. Tomorrow they will all be gone.” Syria is pulling out of Lebanon in line with the UN resolution passed in September. It had vowed to go by April 30 but will be out about four days early.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan overrode US objections to delay the report on Syria’s progress for a week until Tuesday, when a UN verification team will arrive in Damascus. The team hopes to obtain from Syrian officials maps of Syria’s abandoned positions and final reports on the status of its military and intelligence presence in Lebanon, a UN official said. The team will then travel to Lebanon, where it is expected to verify the Syrian withdrawal.

Syria, whose forces entered Lebanon early in the 1975-1990 civil war, has dominated the country since the war ended. It had some 14,000 troops stationed in Lebanon before it began pulling them out on March 8 in the face of international pressure and Lebanese protest after the Feb. 14 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri.

Opposition protests also toppled Lebanon’s pro-Syrian government in the wake of Hariri’s death. Parliament will start on Tuesday debating the policy statement of a new cabinet led by Prime Minister Najib Mikati. The assembly will hold a confidence vote on Wednesday which the government is expected to win easily. The government would then begin preparations to hold general elections, due before the end of May.

Syrian troops worked non-stop over the weekend, sometimes in heavy rain, to dismantle their positions and leave.

The military road that links the two countries will be closed after the farewell ceremony ends and the Lebanese Army will take over the Syrian intelligence headquarters, the sources said. The Lebanese Army took over some positions around the eastern city of Baalbek on Sunday, raising the Lebanese flag. Syria had already reduced its troop levels in Lebanon from about 40,000 some five years ago.

<B>Lin NOUEIHED</B>