Arab ministers urges Israelis to leave Lebanon

United Nations, Aug 8: Arab officials converge on the United Nations today to insist that a US-French resolution demand an immediate Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon so Beirut's army can take over the south from Hizbollah.

Consequently, the UN Security Council delayed a decision on the draft resolution aimed at establishing a truce between Israeli and Hizbollah guerrillas and laying out terms for a political settlement that Washington and Paris had hoped would be adopted yesterday.

But no vote is expected until Wednesday or Thursday while diplomats work on adjustments to the draft and hear an afternoon presentation from the three Arab League officials -- the foreign ministers of Qatar and the United Arab Emirates and Amr Moussa, the organization's secretary-general.

At a meeting in Beirut, 17 Arab foreign ministers backed the Lebanese government's amendments to the draft that include the withdrawal of some 10,000 Israeli troops in the south trying to stamp out Hizbollah rocket fire.

Lebanon's Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, choking back tears, told them the resolution would do little to quell the violence that has taken the lives of more than 900 Lebanese and displaced some 900,000.

''It barely leads to a cease-fire,'' he said.

The draft does not set a timetable for Israel's withdrawal.

Israel has lost 97 people and has refused to leave until an international force arrives and two soldiers abducted by Hizbollah on July 12 are released.

The seizure of the soldiers triggered an intense Israeli military response that was met with a rain of Hizbollah missiles into northern Israel.

Final Draft

France's UN Ambassador Jean-Marc de la Sabliere and US Ambassador John Bolton said they would not introduce a final draft before the Arab League envoys spoke.

''We have to listen to what is happening there,'' de la Sabliere told reporters. But he said, ''I want to recall that it is the Arab League that asked the Council to act. And for the Council to act means that it has to take into account the concerns of all.'' Bolton said, ''We're still talking about possible changes we can make based on developments in Lebanon.'' Beirut's acting foreign minister, Tareq Mitri, briefed Annan about the Lebanese cabinet decision to send 15,000 troops into the south, which Hizbollah controls.

Mitri said the move, combined with an end to the fighting and the start of an Israeli withdrawal, ''would enable the Lebanese army, after so many years, to be able to exercise both its duty and its responsibility in extending the authority of the government of Lebanon over its national territory.'' Siniora also wants to settle the Shebaa farms dispute, a strip on the Israeli-Lebanon-Syria border occupied by Israel since 1967. The United Nations has said the 25-sq-km area is Syrian territory unless both nations agree to change it.

Lebanon says Shebaa is part of its territory and the Arab League and even Syria agrees. But Damascus has not signed a document on demarcating the border.

Siniora wants UN peacekeepers to occupy it until an agreement is signed, thereby removing Hizbollah's main reason for battling Israel before the current crisis.

The resolution now asks UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to submit proposals for Shebaa and other borders.

Another problem is authorization of an international force to go into the south, which France is expected to lead. Some Lebanese officials have said it is not needed but Beirut's amendments do not ask for it be scrapped.

Reuters