Lebanese President Emile Lahoud on Thursday re-appointed pro-Syrian Omar Karami as the country's new premier, 10 days after Karami resigned under massive protests and pressure.

The decision was made after the majority of Lebanese lawmakers nominated Karami to head the new government on Wednesday.

"The current difficulties can only be confronted with a government of national unity, a salvation government," Karami told reporters after being re-appointed by the president.

He said he will start consultations with the opposition for the formation of the government on Monday, which, he said, is the only way to save the country from destruction.

The caretaker prime minister quit from office on Feb. 28 under large-scale popular protests in Beirut following the Feb. 14 assassination of his predecessor Rafik Hariri. Protesters accused Syria and the pro-Syria Lebanese government of being behind Hariri's death.

On Tuesday, hundreds of thousands of people flooded central Beirut in a massive demonstration called by Hezbollah to denounce Western interference and show support to Syria as some 14,000 Syrian troops started to move to the eastern Bekaa Valley in the first phase of a pullout.

Karami's reinstatement was considered an affront to many who had participated in the demonstrations that led up to his resignation and his appeal for a national unity government sparked immediate resistance from the anti-Syrian opposition.

A key opposition chief Walid Jumblatt described Karami's comeback as a "disappointment" and "an extension of the crisis" in the country.

"Re-appointing Karami to form a new government is the peak of political insolence," said Gibran Tueni, a member of the Lebanese opposition. He said such a move was to be expected from this "useless, bankrupt, laughable government that is entirely subject to Syrian tutelage."

"We need a prime minister to head a government of national unity, and he (Karami) does not represent national unity, he is a party (to the conflict)," opposition spokesman Antoine Andrawos said.

Karami rejected suggestions that his re-appointment was inspired by Syria, saying his supporters had the majority in parliament as well as among the people.

Following Karami's restoration, the US State Department said Lebanon needs an effective government, suggesting that Karami might not be able to take the lead in ending Syrian domination of his nation.

"Prime Minister Karami said when he resigned the first time that he was resigning because he couldn't be effective," said Deputy State Department spokesman Adam Ereli.

"In our view, the immediate challenge for the new government of Lebanon, and what I think the international community will be looking for, is that it responds to the aspirations of the Lebanese people for freedom and for sovereignty untrammeled by foreign forces," Ereli said.

Specifically, Ereli said, all foreign forces needed to withdraw from Lebanon, and elections should take place "free from intimidation, free from coercion, and that allow the Lebanese people to fully express their views and freely choose their leaders."

Karami's designation also prompted expressions of displeasure from Britain.

"We want to see a new government chosen without foreign interference," British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said. "I was very unhappy ... at the news that President Lahoud has asked the prime minister to re-appoint essentially the same government in Lebanon."

The political wrangling in Beirut came as an estimated 3,000 Syrian forces were completing a withdrawal from northern Lebanon on the third day of a redeployment under pressure -- primarily from the United States and France -- for a full and immediate pullout.

On mountains overlooking Beirut, other Syrian troops continued to pull back into the eastern Bekaa Valley as part of redeployment which Lebanese Defense Minister Abdel Rahim Mrad has said would take between a week and 10 days.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad pledged on Monday to pull back his country's remaining troops and intelligence forces in Lebanon toward the Bekaa Valley by the end of March. But he stopped short of announcing a full and immediate withdrawal.

UN special envoy Terje Roed-Larsen is due in Beirut on Friday and scheduled to travel to Damascus the next day to press Syrian authorities for a date of a complete withdrawal from Lebanon, which is demanded in UN Security Council Resolution 1559.