Riesz means of the counting function of the Laplace operator on compact manifolds of non-positive curvature

Let $(M,g)$ be a compact, $d$-dimensional Riemannian manifold without boundary. Suppose further that $(M,g)$ is either two dimensional and has no conjugate points or $(M,g)$ has non-positive sectional curvature. The goal of this note is to show that the long time parametrix obtained for such manifolds by B'erard can be used to prove a logarithmic improvement for the remainder term of the Riesz means of the counting function of the Laplace operator.