Israel's defence minister backs new Lebanon force

JERUSALEM, July 23 (Reuters) Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz said today that Israel was willing to accept the deployment of an international peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon.

He suggested the force would be led by NATO but gave no time frame for any deployment.

''Because of the weakness of the Lebanese army, we will support a wide national force ... which would deploy in the south,'' the Haaretz newspaper's Web site quoted Peretz as telling German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

REUTERS SKU PM1540