"The forces of the Lebanese army are not sufficient to replace the Syrians who might leave the Bekaa valley (in eastern Lebanon), where they are now concentrated, for good," Abdel Rahim Mrad said.

"The members of the army are too young to be able to carry out a task that has until now been handled by seasoned soldiers and their numbers are insufficient because we have recently reduced the length of compulsory military service from a year to six months," he added.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad announced his intention to withdraw an estimated 14,000 Syrian troops from Lebanon in two stages on March 5. He later gave a pledge to a UN envoy to abide by terms of UN Security Council Resolution 1559, which calls for a complete pullback.

An estimated four to five thousand Syrian troops have already returned home, with the remaining 10,000 or so concentrated in the Bekaa valley near the Syrian border.

A joint Lebanese-Syrian military committee is to meet in the first week of April to determine the next moves.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who spoke with Assad this week, said in Paris Thursday that he expected the Syrian leader to announce a timetable for a full withdrawal in the next few days.

The Syrian pullout was undertaken in the face of immense Lebanese and international pressure that followed the assassination here February 14 of former prime minister Rafiq Hariri.

The attack, blamed by the Lebanese opposition on Syria despite denials in Damascus, inflamed public opinion and galvanized momentum to end the near 30-year Syrian military presence in Lebanon.

Syrian forces entered the country in 1976 to serve as a buffer between warring Lebanese factions and at one time numbered 40,000.

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