France backs Lebanon as Israeli attacks continue

PARIS, July 17 (Reuters) French President Jacques Chirac's strong backing of Lebanon in the face of Israel's offensive has underlined France's continued close ties to its former colony.

Today, Chirac called the explosion of violence ''aberrant'' and dispatched Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin to Beirut to ''express the support of France and the solidarity of the French people in this trial''.

''Lebanon's integrity, independence and sovereignty must be recognised,'' Chirac said in St Petersburg, Russia following a summit of leaders of the Group of Eight industrial nations.

Chirac's comments marked a contrast with the U.S. line that Israel has the right to defend itself and reflect longstanding French support for Lebanon, a country caught between its more powerful neighbours Syria and Israel.

Some 17,000 French citizens are residents of Lebanon and as many as 5,000 more may be visiting temporarily.

France itself, which governed what became modern Lebanon after World War One, is home to a Lebanese community estimated at up to 120,000, according to Lebanon's embassy in Paris.

''The connections are very close,'' said Denis Bauchard, a former senior French diplomat now at the foreign policy institute Ifri.

''Every time Lebanon has been affected either by Syria or Israel, we have always reacted very vigorously,'' he said.

''DISPROPORTIONATE RESPONSE'' Chirac has described Israel's bombardment of targets in Lebanon as a ''disproportionate'' response to the capture of two Israeli soldiers by Hizbollah guerrillas and questioned whether Israel wanted to destroy its northern neighbour.

The differences with the United States fall well short of the divisions opened up by the Iraq war, with the European Union also calling for restraint from both sides.

But the tone of Chirac's comments has not been missed.

''We are grateful to President Chirac for his efforts to help Lebanon,'' Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora told the daily Le Monde. ''We are convinced he will spare no effort or miss any occasion to support our demands,'' he said.

By contrast, he noted of the United States: ''They are our friends but their friendship for others is greater.'' In Chirac's absence today, a crisis cabinet discussed the situation in Lebanon and finalised evacuation plans, with a specially chartered 1,000-passenger ferry due to start picking up stranded French nationals later today.

The government gave no details about what Villepin and Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy would discuss with Lebanese officials in Beirut.

Bauchard, who was head of the Middle East section in the French Foreign Ministry when Paris helped broker a ceasefire between Israel and Hizbollah in 1996, said it could make sense for France to use its good offices in the region.

But he said the current crisis, with widespread bombardments and mass evacuations in Lebanon and concerted rocket attacks on Israel, appeared more serious than the situation a decade ago and the chances of any breakthrough appeared slight.

''It will certainly be a very difficult task for Mr de Villepin,'' he said.

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