Two UN teams will be heading to Lebanon in the coming days to verify the pullout of Syria's military and intelligence forces and prepare for an inquiry into the assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister, a UN spokesman said Friday.

The first team is to verify Syria's compliance with Security Council resolution 1559, which calls for withdrawing all foreign forces from Lebanon, disbanding all militias, extending Government control over the whole country and holding free elections, Spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters.

It is being put together by the UN Peacekeeping Department and will be a technical team led by military experts, he noted.

Under an agreement worked out earlier this month by Terje Roed-Larsen, Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Special Envoy for implementing resolution 1559, Syria agreed to withdraw all its forces, military assets and intelligence apparatus from its smaller neighbor by April 30.

The second team will be a small advance party to prepare the ground for an international independent investigation Commission to probe former prime minister Rafik Hariri's assassination, Dujarric said.

The UN Security Council voted unanimously on April 7 to set up the Commission after an initial UN fact-finding mission found Lebanon's own probe seriously flawed and declared Syria, with its troop presence, primarily responsible for the political tension preceding the assassination.

The head of the new Commission has not yet been named, Dujarric added.

Hariri's murder led to an increase in tension in Lebanon ahead of elections scheduled to take place by the end of May, with mass demonstrations and counter-demonstrations.

Source: Xinhua