US, France still differ on UN W Asia resolution

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 9 (Reuters) The United States and France disagreed TOday over an Israeli troop withdrawal from Lebanon, further delaying a UN resolution that could lead to a cease-fire in the four-week war.

Facing Arab criticism that the current US-French draft resolution favored Israel, the two co-sponsors agreed to change their UN Security Council draft after Lebanon yesterday announced it would deploy 15,000 soldiers in the south.

Both the United States and France want a quick vote on the resolution imposing a ''cessation of hostilities'' between Israel and Hizbollah guerrillas. But it has been difficult to craft a text all sides can accept and a resolution may not be formally introduced until tomorrow, with a vote probably a day later.

Paris and Washington disagree on when an international peace force, expected to be led by France, should enter south Lebanon and when Israel should withdraw, officials from both countries said.

French President Jacques Chirac threatened to introduce his own resolution if no compromise was reached.

''If we reach an agreement, then so much the better,'' Chirac told a news conference in the southern town of Toulon where he was vacationing.

''If we don't, it is obvious that we will have a debate at the Security Council and each of us will clearly set out our positions, including France with its own resolution,'' Chirac said after summoning ministers to Toulon.

But he said, ''I can't imagine that there would be no solution ... which would be the most immoral result, that we accept the current situation and that we abandon an immediate cease-fire.'' MAY STILL AGREE US Ambassador John Bolton, after talks with Amr Moussa, secretary-general of the Arab League, said negotiations with France were continuing. He said they reached initial agreement on the draft last Saturday contrary to expectations and ''we may yet do it again.'' The United States and Israel back a multinational force able to take offensive action where necessary rather than merely act as observers, as the current UN contingent has done for the past 28 years.

But both Bolton and State Department spokesman Sean McCormack indicated flexibility on whether or not a new international force would be part of a UN operation, which Lebanon and France want, or separate from it.

''What matters more than the title or a name of a force is what it does and what it can do and what it is mandated to do and what is its mission,'' McCormack said.

France would like to see Israel begin withdrawing when Lebanese troops move in. The United States says this cannot happen before international troops arrive.

Bolton said he explained to Moussa ''that we don't want a situation where a withdrawal of Israeli forces leads to a security vacuum that Hizbollah can re-infiltrate.'' A State Department official, who asked not to be named, said ''Israel's withdrawal can only take place at the point when the Lebanese and an international force are there. The two cannot be delinked,'' he said.

''We are still exactly where we have been before and that is how do you do this? What is the timing and sequencing of this? How quickly can you deploy the Lebanese army and an international force to support it, and how do you then organize that deployment?'' the official said.

Some 1,000 Lebanese and more than 100 Israelis have been killed in four weeks of fighting, sparked when Hizbollah seized two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid on July 12.

Meanwhile, the Israeli cabinet decided today to expand its ground offensive, possibly as far as 20 km from the border. An Israeli official expected it would take would take 30 days to complete the expanded offensive.

Reuters MQA VP0055