Sweden offers to host meet on rebuilding Lebanon

BJORKVIK, Sweden, Aug 6 (Reuters) Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson, facing an election in September, said today Sweden should lead an international effort to rebuild Lebanon, adding he had made the overture to several world leaders.

Persson said Sweden had approached UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, French President Jacques Chirac and European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana with an offer to hold a conference on helping Lebanon.

''Over the last few days we have investigated the possibility that we can take the lead internationally in the humanitarian effort to rebuild the Lebanon,'' Persson said.

He made the offer in an election speech in the town of Bjorkvik, around 100 km south east of Stockholm.

Swedes go to the polls in September with the ruling Social Democrats neck-and-neck with the centre-right opposition bloc.

''All of them thought it is an attractive idea, but it's too early to say whether it will happen,'' he said.

Persson said Israel had used ''disproportionate'' force in its attacks on the Lebanon over the last few weeks, adding that its policies, which have led to hundreds of civilian deaths, were ''counterproductive, short-sighted and wrong''.

He called on both sides to lay down arms immediately.

If agreement is reached on holding the conference in Sweden, it could happen in the next few weeks, Persson said.

Sweden's offer comes a day after the United States and France drew up a draft UN Security Council resolution aimed at ending the fighting in Lebanon which has claimed more than 800 lives, mainly civilian.

REUTERS LL RN2206