Middle East: The Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and the general whom he appointed president of Lebanon, Émile Lahoud, yesterday announced they had agreed on the withdrawal of all Syrian troops to the eastern Bekaa Valley by the end of March.
But the agreement, after a meeting of the "Syrian-Lebanese Higher Council" in Damascus, left vague the most important question - a complete withdrawal of all Syrian troops from Lebanon. It specified only that once the redeployment to the Bekaa is completed, "the governments of the two countries will decide on continuing the redeployment of the remaining Syrian forces".
The anti-Syrian opposition have scored two victories in as many weeks. On February 28th, they brought down the Karami government. Yesterday, they obtained the Syrian commitment to withdraw to the Bekaa.
Yet for the demonstrators on Martyrs' Square, the wishy-washy statement and the handful of lorries seen carrying old mattresses and furniture over the mountains were not sufficient.
"We want them completely out of here. They can make promises and hang on," said Elias Noufaily (21), a Christian computer science student. "I'm afraid that's what will happen. They have the Lebanese government in their pockets."
"Freedom. Sovereignty. Independence," the crowd chanted as a human sea topped by sails of red, white and green Lebanese flags converged on the square, flanked by hundreds of Lebanese army troops armed with assault rifles and rockets.
Lebanon's "independence uprising" claimed its first wounded man on Sunday night, a Christian youth shot in the thigh by pro-Syrian troublemakers near Martyrs' Square. Opposition leaders fear that more than a dozen cars stolen from the streets of Beirut could be used as carbombs.
Lebanese police estimated yesterday's crowd at 150,000, as many as attended the funeral of the much-loved former prime minister Rafik Hariri on February 16th.
Sunni Muslims were there in force yesterday, to mark the third week after their leader's assassination. "We all pitched in to rent buses to come here," explained Sana'a Ghazal (43), a veiled Sunni Muslim woman from Sidon. Aziza Barnawi, an old woman with a wizened face, held a poster of Hariri to her chest. "He sent me a widow's pension every month. He paid for all my medicine," she said.
The Sunni community were traditionally close to Syria, but the women from Sidon were adamant. "We want Syria to leave, and we want the truth about Hariri's assassination," Ms Ghazal said.
Maurice Baz (84), a Christian and the former president of the Lebanese appeals court, had come to the protest march with his wife Hayat (73). The couple brought their three children and their spouses. Their son Jamil flew from London, where he is the director of a German bank, for yesterday's demonstration.
Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary general of the Shia Muslim movement Hizbullah, who has called for a pro-Syrian demonstration today, said: "The goal of the US and Israel is to spread chaos in Lebanon . . . to push certain Lebanese to clamour for international intervention."
There is no chaos - yet - but Mr Baz was already clamouring for intervention. "Without the West, we cannot make Syria leave," the ageing lawyer said. "We need a NATO army to control the situation. Ten thousand soldiers would be enough. Bush is popular in Lebanon. I am starting to like him." Mr Baz said he hoped it would rain on Hizbullah's demonstration today.
Most Lebanese believe the Shia Muslims will mobilise an even bigger crowd than the anti-Syrian throng who marched from Martyrs' Square to the site of Hariri's assassination and back yesterday.
"Lebanon is divided," Mr Baz admitted. "They claim we have sold out to Israel, but we have no contacts with Israel and we want good relations with Syria, if they would just leave."
The tent city that has sprung up around the statue of the martyrs executed by Ottoman Turkey has become the capital's most fashionable venue for young Christians. I found a group of Maronite men singing a song they had written. "Assad get off our backs. Your army is driving me crazy..." it began.
Claude Hajjar, a middle-aged Christian woman wearing military dog-tags, accosted me. "We want to send a message to Bashar," she said: "He has to leave right away." Ms Hajjar belongs to the Guardians of the Cedars group, which earned a reputation for atrocities against Palestinians in the 1970s. The group's leader, Étienne Sakr, lives in Israel.
The Hariri Baha School in Sidon bused in 50 ninth grade students. In their grey and green uniforms, the students congregated near Hariri's tomb, in the shadow of the huge Mohamed al-Amin mosque that Hariri was building. All wore black and white stickers demanding "The Truth".
"We are so afraid of division here," Mounir Dadda (14), said. Most of the teenagers had met Hariri. "He was our father, the backbone of the country," Mounir said.
Today's Hizbullah demonstration was on the minds of the protesters as they left Martyrs' Square. "I hope this beautiful image will not be damaged tomorrow," said Naim Chami (25), a Sunni law student. "I believe the Syrians have mandated Hizbullah to continue their work here. Hizbullah are the only pro-Syrian group with any popular legitimacy."
Chami said he'd wanted to leave Lebanon when he learned of Hariri's death, but had been inspired by the "true nationalism" that has emerged in three weeks of protests on Martyrs' Square.
"Lebanon represents an idea of progress in the Middle East. We have the highest number of university graduates, and we must show the other Arabs how to build democracy. Lebanon can no longer be dominated by bedouins from Syria."