Asian ministers slam Israel attack on UN post

KUALA LUMPUR, July 26 (Reuters) Asian foreign ministers joined the UN secretary-general today in criticising Israel for its ''apparently deliberate'' air strike on a UN post in Lebanon.

Four UN observers, including one from China, died in yesterday's attack on the post in south Lebanon.

Israel has voiced shock at the suggestion, also made by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, that it was deliberate.

Foreign ministers from China, Japan and South Korea discussed Israel's offensive in southern Lebanon in talks with the 10 members of the Association of South East Asian Nations in Malaysia today.

''The ministers were deeply shocked and distressed by the apparently deliberate targeting by the Israeli Defence Forces of the United Nations observer post...,'' Malaysia's foreign minister, who chaired the meeting, said in a statement issued afterwards.

Calling it a ''coordinated attack'', the statement said the ministers called on Israel and the United Nations to carry out separate inquiries into ''this very disturbing incident''.

REUTERS SI RAI1831