Hundreds of thousands of protesters gathered in Beirut on Tuesday to meet calls from the militant Shiite Muslim Hezbollah group for a demonstration to counter weeks of massive rallies demanding Syrian forces leave Lebanon.

Pro-Syrian protesters waved Lebanese flags and chanted anti-American slogans, urging the US to stop interfering in Lebanon and denounced a UN resolution demanding the withdrawal of Syria's army and the disarming of militant groups.

"We are with the resistance. We are against the US and Israel and the 15-59 resolution and we support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, because it's an Arab country, not American."

Syria, faced with growing international pressure, announced on Monday it would pull its troops to Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley before the end of this month, and then later to the Syrian border. Enditem