Syria to completely pull out its forces before the Lebanese elections

Syria said it will withdraw all its forces existing in Lebanon before the elections so as this announcement will end any speculation on the presence of 10,000 soldiers in the Bekaa plain, in the east of Lebanon.

This came in a message sent by the Syria's foreign minister Farouk al-Shara to the UN secretary general Kofi Annan.

Al-Shara said in his message that the standing cooperation since a long time between Syria and Lebanon enabled actually decreasing number of the Syrian troops to 10,000 from 40,000 as well as "the complete withdrawal of these forces before the next elections in Lebanon."

In the same message Syria asked for removing the remark that the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had threatened the former Lebanese President Rafic Hariri of physical harm. The remark which was stated in the report of Peter FitzGerald, the chief of the facts finding commission on the Hariri assassination.

Parliamentary elections are due in Lebanon in May.