WASHINGTON, March 2 – President Bush raised the pressure on Syria today, saying the world was “speaking with one voice” in demanding that Damascus pull its troops from Lebanon.A State Department official, meanwhile, expressed skepticism about a new Syrian vow to withdraw. President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, seeking to defuse international pressure, pledged in an interview with Time magazine this week that his troops would leave “maybe in the next few months.” He qualified this, however, saying that the redeployment of 14,000 troops would require extensive and time-consuming preparations. Mr. Bush, speaking at a community college in Arnold, Md., applauded the message Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had delivered a day earlier in London. She said that Damascus was “out of step” with the world’s desires for a free Lebanon. Her French counterpart, Michel Barnier, who appeared with her, agreed.

“Both of them stood up and said loud and clear to Syria, ‘You get your troops and your secret services out of Lebanon so that good democracy has a chance to flourish,’ ” Mr. Bush said. He said the world was “speaking with one voice when it comes to making sure that democracy has a chance to flourish in Lebanon.”

The White House showed little interest in Mr. Assad’s vague timetable for withdrawal. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State David Satterfield, testifying before a Senate panel after a visit to Lebanon, said today that “neither this government nor the people of Lebanon will believe anything other than what we see with our eyes.”

Meanwhile, the leaders of Britain and Germany joined in the calls for a Syrian withdrawal. Prime Minister Tony Blair said in an interview to be shown on Al Arabiya satellite television that “the international community will not tolerate anybody trying to interfere with the right of the Lebanese people to elect their own government.” And Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, in Bahrain during a Persian Gulf tour, said of a Syrian withdrawal, “The quicker this happens the better.”

In Beirut today, the Syrian-supported president, Émile Lahoud, met with a parliamentary leader about naming a new prime minister, two days after a mass protests prompted the resignation of Prime Minister Omar Karami and his pro-Syrian government.

Anti-Syrian protesters returned to the streets today, and opposition leaders were meeting to plan their next steps.

Mr. Assad told Time magazine that the timing of a withdrawal would depend on discussions with a United Nations envoy and with his army chiefs. He added that the army chiefs might need six months to make preparations for the returning troops, and that Syria would have to fortify its border with Lebanon.

A leader of the Lebanese opposition, the Druze chief Walid Jumblatt, welcomed Mr. Assad’s promise but said that he wanted to see “a clear-cut timetable.”

Damascus has come under growing pressure, from street protests in Beirut and from diplomatic channels, since the assassination last month of a former Lebanese prime minister, Rafiq Hariri, who had campaigned for the departure of the Syrian forces that have occupied the country since its civil war in the 1970’s and 1980’s.

The Bush administration has blamed Syrian-based terrorists for a deadly suicide attack last week in Tel Aviv, and continues to complain that Syria does too little to stop terrorists from using Syrian territory for attacks on Israel or Iraq.

Mr. Assad, while insisting that his government had no role in the killing in Beirut, has been struggling to ease the pressure on his government. In addition to the interview with Time, he spoke to a reporter for the Italian daily La Repubblica, telling it that Damascus was essential to peace efforts in the Middle East. “You will see, maybe one day the Americans will knock on our door,” he said.

In Washington, Ambassador Osman Faruk Logoglu of Turkey suggested that the West might need to sweeten its demands on Syria with offers of economic and diplomatic incentives. While the chances of a Syrian withdrawal had grown, he said, “it is obviously going to take a long time.”