Rice wants free Lebanon polls

2005-03-01 21:17

London - US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice on Tuesday called for free and fair elections in Lebanon following the surprising resignation of the pro-Syrian government and stressed the need for polling independent of "contaminating influences".

Speaking to reporters after an international conference on Palestinian security, Rice said the Syrians must withdraw about 15 000 troops and their security services from Lebanon.

"The pressure of the international community is quite palpable on Syria," she said.

"They really should get about living up to their international obligations."

The United States' top diplomat said the dismantling of terrorist militias in southern Lebanon would be critical to any forward steps in the region.

"There can't continue to be strikes from southern Lebanon," she said.

Earlier in the day, the US and France issued a joint statement calling for an international investigation of the death in Lebanon of opposition politician Rafik Hariri and for a full pull-out of Syrian troops there.

Rice said there is "a long list of concerns about a Syria that is standing in the way of Lebanese, Iraqis, Palestinians and others in their aspirations for a better world".

Huge street demonstrations and Monday's resignation of the pro-Syrian Lebanese government marked the most serious challenge to Syrian authority in Lebanon since the end of the civil war that killed 150 000 and gutted the Lebanese economy in the 1970s and 1980s.

Issues such as Syria's involvement in Lebanon, the long-running dispute between Israel and the Palestinians and Iran's nuclear weapons programme were among the topics discussed as Rice met with foreign leaders in London.

Rice met privately with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, and later insisted that the Palestinians overhaul their security system to counter terrorism and lawlessness.

Rice said prospects for peace between Israel and the Palestinians were the best in years and said the United States would do everything it could to bring peace to the region.

Earlier, Rice praised Egypt and Jordan specifically for their work to improve Palestinian security services.

She called the planned Israeli withdrawal from some Palestinian areas historic, but made clear that the United States expects Israel to follow through on all of its promises.

Rice also met with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and with other participants in the Quartet, the international coalition administering a blueprint for ending violence and establishing a Palestinian state.

The quartet members, the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations, condemned a deadly bombing on Friday in Tel Aviv and said the Abbas government must immediately arrest those responsible.

- AP