EU's Solana welcomes UN West Asia resolution

BEIRUT, Aug 13 (Reuters) The European Union's foreign policy chief Javier Solana has welcomed a UN Security Council resolution to end the month-long war between Israel and Hizbollah.

The council resolution adopted on Friday called for a halt to the fighting and authorised up to 15,000 UN troops to be deployed to help the Lebanese army enforce a ceasefire.

''It (the resolution) has taken probably too long a time to arrive at, but now it is approved unanimously by the Security Council,'' Solana told reporters in Beirut yesterday, where he met Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and other Lebanese officials.

''I hope that once the governments of both countries accept the resolution, the ceasefire will be implemented.'' A Lebanese official source said on Friday his government, which includes Hizbollah, had accepted the resolution.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will urge his cabinet to approve the resolution at a meeting today. An Israeli official said the army would not halt its offensive before that meeting.

The Israeli army yesterday said it had started broadening its ground offensive in southern Lebanon and its forces were pushing towards the Litani river, up to 20 km from the Israeli border.

The war erupted after Hizbollah's July 12 capture of two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid. The fighting has killed at least 1,060 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and 124 Israelis.

Reuters LL GC1031