BEIRUT, Lebanon – Hundreds of Syrian soldiers stationed in the hills near Lebanon’s capital began dismantling their bases yesterday in an effort to appease a U.N. Security Council demand that all 20,000 Syrian troops leave the country.

But with a senior Lebanese military official saying the 3,000 soldiers were only moving away from Beirut and not out of Lebanon, the effort was unlikely to satisfy the Security Council, America, Israel, or critics of the Syrian presence.

The Lebanese official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said preparations for the redeployment began yesterday and the move should be completed within a few days.

There was no sign of troop movement in the areas included in the first stage of the shift: the hilly coastal towns of Aramoun, Chuwiefat, Damour, Doha and Khaldeh, south of Beirut,and Dhourt al-Chouair to the north.

At Dhourt al-Chouair, 15 miles north of Beirut, Syrian soldiers seen through the gate of the camp appeared to be going about usual chores – cooking dinner, gathering wood. Soldiers at the gate expressed surprise at the sudden appearance of journalists and ordered them to leave.

Early this month, a divided U.N. Security Council approved a resolution introduced by America and France demanding that foreign forces leave Lebanon.

It also demanded that Lebanon hold a presidential election. But Lebanese lawmakers amended the constitution to keep pro-Syrian President Lahoud in office for three more years, underlining Syria’s grip on politics in its smaller neighbor.

The Lebanese defense minister, Mahmoud Hammoud, emerging from a meeting yesterday of senior Lebanese and Syrian military officers in Beirut, said the redeployment indicated “the security situation in Lebanon is becoming more stabilized.”

Syria sent troops to Lebanon in 1976 to help quell a sectarian civil war. But they remained after the war ended in 1990, and Lebanon’s government repeatedly has said their presence has been a stabilizing factor. Most of the 20,000 Syrian soldiers now in Lebanon are based in the Bekaa Valley near Syria.

By moving troops away from the capital, Syria hopes to quiet increasingly vocal Lebanese and international opposition to its military presence in Lebanon.

Ahmad Haj Ali, an adviser to Syria’s information minister, said in a telephone interview that the redeployment was a “positive step” that he expected to be looked on favorably by the Security Council.

“It is not negative even to say it came in order to better Syrian-American ties, which is something we are searching for,” he added.

The redeployment comes two weeks before U.N. Secretary-General Annan is to update the Security Council on the situation.