Opposition takes hard line on Syria

BEIRUT -- Bolstered by support from Arab countries, the Lebanese opposition demanded a full withdrawal yesterday of Syrian troops and intelligence agents from Lebanon.

Egypt and Saudi Arabia have stepped in to persuade Syria to withdraw from Lebanon and avoid a showdown with the world, Arab diplomats say, while a few hundred activists in Beirut yesterday continued anti-Syrian demonstrations that toppled Lebanon's government.

Syrian President Bashar Assad was expected to travel to Riyadh today to meet with the Saudi leadership regarding an Egyptian-Saudi proposal for Damascus to set a timetable for withdrawing its troops from Lebanon, Arab and Saudi diplomats said on condition of anonymity.

Lebanon's staunchly pro-Syrian president, Emile Lahoud, began the search for a new prime minister to replace Omar Karami, who resigned earlier this week. Lahoud met with the speaker of parliament amid opposition pressure to ensure the new government is not dominated by Damascus.

Lebanon's worst political crisis in years has increasingly isolated Syria, with even its traditional ally Russia joining the United States, France, and the United Nations in calling on Damascus to pull its 15,000 troops out of its neighbor, where it has wielded power for more than a decade.

Opposition leaders meeting in Beirut asked Assad to issue a formal announcement pulling his forces out of Lebanon.

''The core of our pressing demands on the road to salvation and independence is represented by a full withdrawal of the Syrian Army and intelligence from Lebanon," said a statement released following the meeting.

Noticeably absent from the statement was any reference to the 1989 Arab-brokered Taif Accord, which called for a gradual withdrawal of the Syrian Army from Lebanon.

Reading the statement, opposition lawmaker Ahmed Fatfat called for ''a Syrian response through an official announcement to be issued by the president of the Arab Syrian republic to withdraw the Syrian forces and its intelligence from Lebanon."

Diplomats, meanwhile, said Egypt and Saudi Arabia are trying to win Syrian acceptance of a timetable for a complete withdrawal by April. The Arab mediation calls for Damascus to announce a withdrawal timetable ''as soon as possible," another diplomat said.

The mediation by the two Arab powerhouses aims ''to save Syria from a serious conflict that will pitch it against the whole world," said one Arab diplomat in Cairo.

The United States, along with France, has stepped up its pressure on Syria. President Bush said yesterday the world ''is speaking with one voice when it comes to making sure that democracy has a chance to flourish in Lebanon."

The crisis also began to have economic effects in Lebanon, a traditional center of banking and commerce.

Worries over where the rapidly unfolding events are taking the country prompted a rush on US dollars, forcing Lebanon's Central Bank to intervene to support the pound.

Lebanese opposition leader Walid Jumblatt demanded yesterday that Syria give precise dates for withdrawing its 15,000 troops from Lebanon. The Syrian president told Time magazine that his forces could leave Lebanon ''maybe in the next few months. Not after that."

''It's a nice gesture, but 'next few months' is quite vague," Jumblatt told BBC radio. ''We need a clear-cut timetable."

Syria's troops entered Lebanon ostensibly as peacekeepers in the second year of the 1975-to-1990 civil war. When the war ended, Syria was the country's number one force, and it has dominated Lebanese politics ever since.