The presidents of Syria and Lebanon met yesterday to approve a two-phased plan to pull out Syrian troops from Lebanon, but the United States said it wanted the Syrians gone before May elections.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Lebanon?s Emile Lahoud were also set to work out details of the plan, including a timeline, officials in Beirut said. Facing intense international pressure, Assad announced plans on Saturday for a complete withdrawal of troops from Lebanon but said Damascus would still play a role in its smaller neighbour.

The United States has been wary of Assad?s plans. The White House said on Sunday that, with its allies, it would not stand by as Assad takes ?half measures? in Lebanon, promising to step up pressure for a complete and immediate withdrawal. ?The international community is not going to stand by and let Assad continue to have these kind of half measures,? said White House counsellor Dan Bartlett.

But Lebanon?s most powerful and only armed party, Hizbollah, called for peaceful protests on Tuesday in support of Syria and warned of chaos if Syrian troops were to pull out. ?The aim of America and Israel is to spread chaos in Lebanon and ... to find excuses for foreign intervention,? Hizbollah chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah told a news conference. Set up by Iran?s Revolutionary Guard in 1982, Shi?ite Muslim Hizbollah is the only Lebanese party to keep its guns and gained wide popularity after driving Israeli troops from southern Lebanon in 2000. Washington says it is a terrorist organisation.

<I>Syria has been in Lebanon since intervening in the civil war in the 1970s and has some 14,000 troops there, down from 40,000.?</I>

While insisting on a Syrian withdrawal, the United States said the timing could be worked out if Assad commits to removing all troops and secret services. But that had to be done before Lebanese elections expected in May. ?I don?t think there could be a scenario in which there could be a real, truly free and fair election with a Syrian presence continuing to have an intimidation factor in Lebanon,? Bartlett said.

Syrian secret services and intelligence officials in Lebanon ?really keep the clamp of fear in the Lebanese people,? he said. US President George W. Bush is considering new unilateral sanctions, including freezing Syrian assets, US officials say, and Washington was discussing ?next steps? with European allies.?

Assad said Syrian troops would initially pull back to the Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon and then to the border area in line with the Taif Accord. The 1989 Taif Accord ended Lebanon?s civil war and, among other points, stipulated the withdrawal of Syrian troops from most of the country within two years.

Syria has sidestepped complying with September?s United Nations Security Council Resolution 1559 which called for foreign troops to quit Lebanon completely, but has said compliance with the Taif Accord amounted to much the same thing. Lebanese media said Syria?s pledge to withdraw was an historic move opening a new chapter after 30 years of Syrian domination. Lebanon?s opposition and European leaders cautiously described the move as positive.

Syria has been in Lebanon since intervening in the civil war in the 1970s and has some 14,000 troops there, down from 40,000. Damascus came under growing Lebanese, Arab and wider pressure to withdraw its forces after the assassination last month of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri. Many accused Syria, which denies any role in the killing.

Hizbollah also dismissed calls in United Nations Security Council Resolution 1559 for its disarmament. ?The resistance will not give up its arms ... because Lebanon needs the resistance to defend it,? Nasrallah said. After the 1975-1990 civil war, the various Christian, Muslim and Druze militias were disbanded but Hizbollah, the main force fighting Israel in the south, was allowed to keep its arms.

<B>Lin Nueihed</B>