Before arriving in the Syrian capital Damascus from Jordan, Mr Annan renewed his calls for Israel to lift its blockade of Lebanon swiftly and to withdraw fully from the country as soon as 5,000 UN peacekeepers are in the south.
"I expect - and I did make this clear to the Israeli authorities - that when the international forces have reached 5,000 and are deployed to the south with the Lebanese (army), it is time for them to withdraw and withdraw completely," Mr Annan said after talks with Jordan's King Abdullah.
UN peacekeepers
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has rebuffed Mr Annan's demands, saying Israel would keep the blockade and stay in Lebanon until all other terms of the UN resolution were met.
Israel says the sea and air embargo is designed to prevent Hezbollah from getting new arms supplies from Iran or Syria.
In a radio interview Mr Annan said that he hoped the UN peacekeepers would be in place "within a week or 10 days".
Mr Annan met with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem in Damascus later in the day. He is expected to hold talks with President Bashar al-Assad later.
Syrian leaders have been angered by an Israeli demand for international troops to deploy on the Lebanese-Syrian border to stop arms smuggling to Hezbollah.
Lebanon, which has sent 8,600 soldiers to patrol the border, says it has no plans to ask UN troops to join them.
International donors pledged more than US$940 million for near-term relief efforts for Lebanon, nearly double the target. people."
Israel rally
In Tel Aviv tens of thousands of Israelis attended a rally today to press for the release of three abducted soldiers after military campaigns in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip failed to free them.
The gathering was the largest public demonstration in Israel since a truce between Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas and Israeli forces on August 14.
The crowd largely steered clear of criticism of the Israeli government's conduct of the Lebanon war, a hot issue in the Jewish state, and focused on the plight of the three soldiers.
"I appeal to the prime minister and the heads of the international community ... this is the time to begin to act and to bring them home," Karnit Goldwasser, whose husband Ehud was seized with another soldier, Eldad Regev, told the crowd.
Their abductions in a cross-border raid by Lebanese Hizbollah guerrillas on July 12 triggered a 34-day war in which nearly 1,200 people in Lebanon and 157 Israelis were killed.
Hours before the rally, a senior Israeli political source said Israel was prepared to discuss freeing Lebanese prisoners if Goldwasser and Regev, both of them reservists, were handed over to the Beirut government.
Hezbollah wants to exchange Goldwasser and Regev for Lebanese prisoners and possibly other Arab prisoners held by Israel.