A senior United Nations envoy said on Thursday he had held highly encouraging talks with the Syrian president about a U.N. resolution calling for Syrian troops to pull out of neighbouring Lebanon. "I am encouraged and hopeful and look with optimism forward towards the fulfilment of my assignment," Terje Roed-Larsen, sent to oversee implementing the controversial resolution, told reporters after meeting President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus. Syrian officials have often criticised U.N. Security Council resolution 1559 as an infringement on a bilateral arrangement between Damascus and Beirut. The official Syrian news agency said on Monday that Syrian Foreign Minister Farouq al-Shara had discussed with Roed-Larsen the "negative impact" of the resolution on Lebanon, where opposition figures are clamouring for Syria to withdraw. The envoy then left without meeting Assad as expected. In an apparent comment on the report, Roed-Larsen said: "I think we are now engaged in a deep and cooperative partnership in the best interest of Lebanon and Syria. This partnership and dialogue naturally aims not at weakening but at strengthening the national unity and sovereignty of Lebanon." --SP 1933 Local Time 1633 GMT
