Syria to pull out

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad announced on Saturday that Syrian troops would start a gradual withdrawal from Lebanon. ‘‘We will...

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad announced on Saturday that Syrian troops would start a gradual withdrawal from Lebanon.

‘‘We will pull all our forces in Lebanon to the Bekaa area and from there to the Syrian-Lebanese border,’’ Assad said in a speech to Parliament. He said he agreed with Lebanon’s President Emile Lahoud to hold a joint meeting next week to approve the plan.

‘‘By this measure Syria would have fulfilled its commitment towards the Taif Accord and implemented (UN Security Council) Resolution 1559,’’ he said. The Taif Accord ended Lebanon’s 1975-90 civil war. Resolution 1559, adopted last September, calls for foreign troops to quit Lebanon.

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Thousands of protesters, waving Lebanese flags and watching Assad’s speech live on big screens, erupted in joy in central Beirut as they heard the announcement.

Meanwhile, US President George W. Bush demanded on Saturday that Syria withdraw completely from Lebanon.

Bush, in his weekly radio address, rejected plans for a partial pullout of troops from Lebanon, saying that a US and French-backed UN Security Council resolution demands ‘‘all foreign forces be withdrawn’’.

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