The US State Department said on Saturday that Syrian President Bashar Assad's announcement of partial withdrawal of troops from Lebanon was not enough.

"President Assad's announcement is not enough," the State Department said in a statement.

"As President (George W.) Bush said Friday, when the United States and France say withdraw, we mean complete withdrawal - no halfhearted measures," the statement said.

In a speech delivered to the parliament on Saturday, Assad announced a plan to withdraw Syrian troops from Lebanon. "Syrian troops will pull back to Bekaa valley in eastern Lebanon and then to the Syrian-Lebanese border," he said.

He said through the move, Syria would fulfill its commitment to the Taif Accord and implementing UN Security Council resolution 1559, which calls for the withdrawal of foreign troops from Lebanon.

In his weekly radio address on Saturday, Bush said French President Jacques Chirac, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder had joined him in calling on Syria to withdraw from Lebanon.

"Syria has been an occupying force in Lebanon for nearly three decades, and Syria's support for terrorism remains a key obstacle to peace in the broader Middle East," he said.

International pressure on Syria for pulling back its troops from Lebanon has escalated since the Feb. 14, when former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri was assassinated in Beirut.

(Xinhua News Agency March 6, 2005)