Australia calls for "credible" peacekeeping force

SYDNEY, July 30 (Reuters) Australia has been invited by the United Nations to join a planned peacekeeping force for southern Lebanon, but Foreign Minister Alexander Downer warned today such a force must be ''a truly credible multi-national force''.

''It's got to be a force which would have somewhere between, well, 10,000, 15,000 perhaps, troops in it, it would have to be properly and effectively led, it would have to have a specific mandate,'' Downer told Australian television.

Downer said the planned peacekeeping force would need to be backed politically and militarily by Israel and be mandated with assisting the Lebanese army gain control of southern Lebanon.

''It would have to be tasked, in particular, to help the Lebanese army itself seize control of southern Lebanon instead of southern Lebanon being in the hands of Hizbollah,'' he said.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has called a meeting in New York tomorrow to get troop contributions for the force, even though its mandate has yet to be set by the Security Council.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will press Israel and Lebanon today to strike a deal on an international force to end the 19-day-old war.

At least 483 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in Lebanon in an offensive launched by Israel after Hizbollah guerrillas captured two soldiers in a cross-border raid on July 12. Fifty-one Israelis, including 18 civilians, have died.

Australia, a strong ally of the United States, has backed Israel's right to defend itself against Hizbollah.

Australia has backed the US war on terror and sent troops to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Downer said Australia was encouraged by Washington to take part in the planned peacekeeping force for southern Lebanon during his recent talks with Rice in Kuala Lumpur.

''She was very enthusiastic about there being some sort of an Australian contribution, though I told her that would inevitably be a very limited one if it were to happen,'' he said.

''But this would have to be a truly credible multi-national force and one that went into southern Lebanon in an environment where there was a proper peace plan being implemented.'' Reuters SP VP0907