France, US resume call for Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon

French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Tuesday called for Syrian troops to withdraw from Lebanon. France and the United States are co-sponsors of a United Nations resolution that demands Syria pull all its 15,000 forces from its neighbor.

One day after the Lebanon's pro-Syrian prime minister announced his resignation, Rice and Barnier used a news conference on the margins of a global conference on Palestinian reform to repeat that demand.

"The Lebanese people have very courageously expressed their aspiration for freedom, their aspiration for a sovereign Lebanon. The Lebanese want to be masters of their own state," Barnier said.