Syrian President Bashar al-Assadhas said that his country will withdraw its troops from Lebanon in a few months, the Time magazine reported Tuesday.

"It (withdrawal) should be very soon and maybe in the next few months. Not after that," Bashar told the Time magazine in an interview published on its website on Tuesday.

Bashar declined to give a definite timetable for the pullout, saying it depended on technical, rather than political, considerations.

"I could not say we could do it in two months because I have not had the meeting with the army people. They may say it will take six months."

Bashar made the remarks after the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri last month, which has resulted in increasing pressure from the international community, urging Damascus to pull troops out of Lebanon.

Syria plays a dominant role in Lebanon and maintains 14,000 troops there. It said last week that it would begin moving its troops in Lebanon closer to its own border to allay mounting world and Lebanese calls for Syria to withdraw all its forces from its neighbor.

(Xinhua News Agency March 2, 2005)