Ousted Lebanese prime minister expected to return to office

BEIRUT, Lebanon -- Lebanon's pro-Syrian prime minister, who was forced to resign last week by opposition protests, was virtually assured of being asked to form the next government after a majority of lawmakers backed him Wednesday.\nAn unofficial count gave Omar Karami more than half of the votes in the 128-member legislature. A formal announcement by President Emile Lahoud, who consulted with legislators, might be made as early as Wednesday night or Thursday.\nBy early evening, 70 of the 78 legislators who met with Lahoud advised him to restore Karami, according the legislators as they left the presidential palace.\nOpposition lawmakers only sent two representatives and did not put forward a name when they met with Lahoud. Instead, they reiterated their demands for the new government: the complete withdrawal of Syrian troops and intelligence officials from Lebanon, the resignation of Lebanese security officials they deem as negligent and a thorough investigation into the Feb. 14 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.\nNominating Karami again as prime minister is sure to enrage the opposition, who led weeks of protests against Syria. Karami has been leading a caretaker government since then.\nDamascus is eager to keep its hold on the Lebanese leadership as it pulls its forces back to the Bekaa Valley, near the Syrian border, and negotiates with the government in Beirut on the troops' full removal.\nIn Damascus, tens of thousands of people took over the main streets, singing national songs and proclaiming their loyalty to President Bashar Assad. One banner addressed to the president read: "We are all with you, who makes the right decisions."\nThousands of Syria's red, white and black flags with its two green stars streamed in the wind. "We sacrifice our blood and our souls for you, oh Bashar!" chanted marchers in the upscale Mezzeh neighborhood,\n"Nobody can get Syria out from Lebanon's heart and mind," a banner read. "No for antagonist pressures against Syria," another said.\nThe rally came a day after Syria's allies in Lebanon made a thundering show of their strength, with hundreds of thousands turning out for a protest organized by the Shiite Muslim Hezbollah guerrilla group to denounce pressure from the United States, France and the United Nations.\nThe redeployment was the first phase of a plan announced Monday by Assad and Lahoud. The 14,000 Syrian troops in Lebanon are to pull back to the eastern Bekaa Valley, then to the border before both sides work out their departure from Lebanon.\nLebanese officials said the pullback would be completed by March 23, and the full withdrawal would come soon after, but he gave no dates. Lebanese Defense Minister Abdul-Rahim Murad said the movement would include the main Syrian intelligence offices in Beirut, a key Lebanese opposition and U.S. demand.\nPresident Bush said Wednesday that Syria's withdrawal plans are just a "a half measure" and that Syrian intelligence services exercise "heavy handed" influence in Lebanon's government.\nBush reiterated his call on Syria to remove all of its soldiers and intelligence forces from Lebanon and said the United States was consulting with allies about possible steps if Damascus refuses.\nIn Lebanon's mountains, Syrian soldiers flashed victory signs and waved automatic rifles as they drove east through Lebanon's mountains in the first phase of a pullback.\nSyrian soldiers were also moving out from bases in northern and central Lebanon that they have held for almost three decades, and Lebanese troops were taking their place.\nThe Syrians waved at watching journalists as they loaded supplies, packed up their personal belongings and drove east. From a truck hauling a 155 mm cannon, a first lieutenant said, "Some of us are going to Syria and some to the Bekaa"