New Delhi, Aug. 2 -- The UN refugee agency's representative in Lebanon said Thursday he hopes that at least 200,000 Syrian refugees return from Lebanon by the end of the year under a new government-backed return plan.

Before former President Bashar Assad was ousted in a lightning insurgent offensive in December, only about 1% of the Syrian refugees in Lebanon said they were planning to return, UNHCR's outgoing Lebanon Representative Ivo Freijsen said.

"That has now changed . 24% of the Syrian refugee community in Lebanon is now thinking or planning about going back during the next 12 months. So that's a very positive shift," Freijsen told The Associated Press in an interview.

Syria's uprising-turned-conflict displaced half of the count...