UNITED NATIONS - The UN Security Council pressed Syria Monday to cooperate in helping Lebanon restore its authority fully over its territory and in stopping the flow of arms into its smaller neighbor.

It welcomed the withdrawal of Syrian arms from Lebanon last year in line with resolution 1559 passed in 2004.

But in a presidential statement read out by its president for January, Tanzania's UN envoy Augustine Mahiga, the council unanimously voiced regret that other provisions of the resolution 1559, such as the disbanding and disarming of Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias and the extension of government control over all Lebanese territory, had yet to be implemented.

It urged Beirut to pursue efforts to secure the disbanding and disarming of the militias, notably the Shiite fundamentalist Hezbollah movement, through a broad national dialogue, and called on all other parties, notably Damascus, to cooperate to this end.

"The Security Council notes with concern the report's suggestion that there has been movement of arms and people into Lebanese territory," the statement said, urging Syria to take measures to stop the arms inflows.

It also condemned "continued terrorist attacks" in Lebanon against several leading anti-Syrian Lebanese figures, notably the car bombing which killed MP and press magnate Gibran Tueni last month, "as part of a deliberate strategy to destabilize the country and intimidate the Lebanese people, their government and their media."

"We are very pleased with this presidential statement," said US ambassador to the UN John Bolton. "This is a clear and unanimous signal from the security council on what Syria still has to do and I hope in Damascus they read it very carefully and then comply fully with resolution 1559."

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