UN Council unanimously approves West Asia resolution

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 12 (Reuters) The U N Security Council unanimously passed a resolution that calls for an end to the bloodshed in Lebanon and Israel and authorizes up to 15,000 UN troops to help enforce it.

The 15-0 vote yesterday capped weeks of anguished negotiations at the United Nations and elsewhere and is the first measure aimed at ending a month of fighting between Israel and Hizbollah militia that has killed some 1,000 Lebanese and 121 Israelis.

The resolution calls for a ''full cessation of hostilities'' and tells Hizbollah to stop all attacks immediately and Israel to end ''all offensive operations.'' A deal on the resolution's text, negotiated by the United States and France, was announced only hours before the vote by British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett.

Approval from both the Israeli and the Lebanese cabinets is expected this weekend, with leaders of both countries urging ministers to accept the resolution.

But UN Secretary-General Annan chastised the council for its delay in negotiating the resolution. He also said he was going to contact all parties this weekend to set a timeline for ending the fighting.

''All members of this council must be aware that this inability to act sooner has badly shaken the world's faith in its authority and integrity,'' Annan said in a lengthy speech.

''War is not politics by other means.'' ''Lebanon has been a victim for too long, mired in an incomplete political transformation since the end of the civil war,'' Annan said. ''Over the last five weeks we have been reminded yet again what a tense fragile region the West Asia has become.'' Once fighting subsides, Israel is expected to undertake a phased withdrawal from Lebanon as the Lebanese army and an expanded U.N.

peacekeeping force of up to 15,000 troops deploys in southern Lebanon, now controlled by Hizbollah.

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