BEIRUT, Feb. 24 -- Syria said Thursday that it would begin moving its troops in Lebanon closer to its own border, a shift designed to blunt international demands for a complete pullout and to ease a groundswell of anti-Syrian sentiment.
Neither Syria nor the Lebanese government, its ally, gave a timetable, indicating that the troops would not leave Lebanon yet and that the withdrawal toward the border would be on the two governments' terms. A U.N. Security Council resolution passed in September effectively called on Syria to withdraw all its forces from Lebanon and to end its political interference there.
While the promised redeployment falls well short of the U.N. demands, it was still a significant attempt to ease pressure that has been building since the Feb. 14 assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri.
A three-member U.N. team led by Irish Deputy Police Commissioner Peter Fitzgerald arrived in Beirut to report on Hariri's killing.
U.S. officials said the Syrian pullback was inadequate and demanded a full withdrawal.
"This needs to happen immediately," said a State Department spokesman, Tom Casey.
