Syria will withdraw all its troops and intelligence agents from Lebanon by the end of this month, the UN said today.
"Foreign Minister Shara also informed me that all Syrian troops, military assets and the intelligence apparatus will have been withdrawn fully and completely latest by April 30th, 2005,£ UN envoy Terje Roed-Larsen said at a joint press conference with Syrian Foreign Minister Farouq al-Shara.
"Syria has agreed that subject to the acceptance of the Lebanese authorities a UN verification team will be dispatched to verify the withdrawal."
Mr Roed-Larsen was speaking after talks with President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus. Syria, under intense international pressure, began pulling out its forces from its neighbour last month in line with a UN Security Council resolution adopted in September.
A Lebanese-Syrian military committee met in Beirut and Damascus in the last few days to agree on the timetable and Lebanese army chief General Michel Suleiman met Mr Assad in Damascus yesterday.
UN Security Council resolution 1559, sponsored by the United States and France, demanded that all foreign forces leave Lebanon and all militias there disarm.
Syria first sent troops to its neighbour in 1976, early in Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war, but in recent years had reduced their numbers to about 14,000 from a peak of 40,000. Last month Mr Assad announced plans for a two-phase troop withdrawal within the framework of the 1990 Taif Accord which ended the civil war.
The first stage, under which all Syrian forces pulled back to the eastern Bekaa Valley and some crossed the border, was completed last month. Troops and intelligence agents have continued to withdraw since then, but it is not clear exactly how many remain.
Dozens of Syrian military trucks and some tanks on transporters rolled out of Lebanon on Sunday, witnesses said. They said the Syrian military traffic was coming from various parts of the Bekaa Valley.
The timetable announced by Mr Roed-Larsen means all Syrian forces will have left before Lebanon holds parliamentary elections. The polls were due to have taken place in May, but might be pushed back because of political turmoil since the February 14th assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri.