Bassel Fleihan dies

A source at the UN office in Beirut said on Monday that the UN secretary general Kofi Annan will submit today to the UN Security Council his report on the developments of implementing UN Security Council resolution no. 1559 over the withdrawal of the Syrian forces from Lebanon. A resolution which calls among many other things for the disarmament of the Lebanese Hizbullah party.

In a relevant development, a high ranking Lebanese security official said that 2500 Syrian soldiers withdrew actually during the recent days and only 1500 among the Syrian forces remained there, adding that other left Syrian forces will complete pullout at the set time before the end of the current month.

At the Lebanese internal level, it was announced the death of the Lebanese parliamentarian Bassel Fleihan in Paris where he had been treated from serious burns inflected during the assassination operation of Rafic Hariri on February 14.

President Emil Lahoud mourned the death Fleihan who passed away on Monday after a 64-day suffering of wounds and burns at time he was accompanying former Lebanese Premier Hariri procession.

"With great sorrow and pain, we received the news of Fleihan death whose absence constitutes a big loss to all Lebanese people and Lebanon," Lebanese presidential statement quoted Lahoud as saying.