BEIRUT, 8 April 2005 — Syria began yesterday the final phase of a troop pullout ending 29 years of military presence in Lebanon where consultations for a new Cabinet to oversee much-awaited legislative elections gathered momentum.

As the remaining Syrian forces officially began their final return home, Syrian Information Minister Mahdi Dakhlallah vowed that the troops would complete the pullout well before an April 30 deadline.

“The Syrian pullout may take place well before the end of the month, just as it did for the first phase that was due to end at the end of March and actually wrapped up in the middle of the month,” Dakhlallah was quoted by the Lebanese press as saying in an interview with US-funded Radio Sawa.

A senior Lebanese military official said the final phase had begun for the remaining 8,000 troops in the eastern Bekaa Valley where Syria has pulled back all its remaining forces in Lebanon.

“They have a timetable for the withdrawal and they will keep pulling out, unit by unit,” he told AFP. “The process involves all army troops and intelligence forces.”

On the ground, dozens of empty Syrian trucks and transport vehicles were seen crossing into Lebanon apparently to take back troops, equipment and weapons, an AFP correspondent said.

Under pressure from the United States and France, Syria agreed to complete its military presence in Lebanon by the end of April in compliance with UN Security Council Resolution 1559 which calls for an immediate pullout of all foreign troops.

With the United Nations playing an increasingly prominent role in Lebanon, UN envoy Terje Roed-Larsen ended yesterday a three-day trip to Beirut where he stressed the need to hold elections on time by the end of May to avoid further instability.

Lebanon has been thrown into political turmoil since the Feb. 14 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri blamed by the opposition on the pro-Syrian regime and their political masters in Damascus.

The UN Security Council was likely to vote yesterday to set up an international inquiry into Hariri’s assassination - a key demand of the Lebanese opposition.

A UN fact-finding report has already pointed the finger at Syria over the killing of Hariri, who spoke out against Syrian dominance of his country.

The assassination sparked mass street protests that led to the resignation of the government in a jittery Lebanon which has since witnessed four bomb blasts in Christian areas of Beirut that killed three civilians.

On Wednesday, Roed-Larsen said the elections in Lebanon were “the most important instrument to safeguard the stability of the country” and hoped that Beirut and Damascus would shortly establish embassies.

US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher renewed a call for Syria “to recognize Lebanon as a separate and independent state and to establish an embassy there.”