20 March 2004	Saturday	28 Muharram 1425

BEIRUT, March 19: Syria should withdraw its troops from Lebanon, a US State Department spokesman said in a published interview on Friday, arguing that the arguments for having them there in the first place no longer held.

"It is time for Syria to withdraw from Lebanon," Nabil Khoury was quoted as saying in an interview with the French-language daily L'Orient-Le Jour, referring to the estimated 17,000 troops Damascus keeps in Lebanon.

"The old arguments that this presence was necessary as collateral for recovering the Golan (Heights from Israel) or to protect Syria's flank in the event of an Israeli attack are now obsolete and out of date," Khoury said.

"Syria needs major economic change, which implies major political change," said Khoury, who is responsible for liaison with Arab media. -AFP