Italy wants clear-cut mandate for Lebanon force

ROME, Aug 14 (Reuters) A planned United Nations force for Lebanon must have a clear-cut mandate, Italy's Prime Minister said today before a government meeting this week to discuss Rome's contribution to the mission.

Defence Ministry officials say up to 3,000 Italian troops could be deployed and Prime Minister Romano Prodi seems eager to win opposition backing for the mission -- which he has branded ''a great opportunity for political unity'' in Italy.

The centre-right opposition led by Silvio Berlusconi says it will give its approval only if the rules of engagement are clear, arguing that the U.N. resolution authorising the deployment is confusing.

The resolution states that a UN force of up to 15,000 new troops will monitor the truce between Israel and Hizbollah with a mandate to ''take all necessary action'' to perform its duties.

''Our soldiers must be allowed to defend themselves from any attack and be able to help fulfil on the ground the provisions of the U.N. resolution, which calls for Hizbollah to be put in a position where it cannot harm,'' said Fabrizio Cicchitto, a senior official of Berlusconi's Forza Italia party.

Prodi, keen to change Italy's international profile after the US focus of his predecessor Berlusconi, has said Italy will contribute troops to the Lebanon force. He has talked of himself as a ''facilitator'' in the Middle East peace drive.

Israel wants the force, expected to be led by France, to be strong enough to confront and disarm Hizbollah guerrillas, but Lebanon objects to any mandate for the peacekeepers that would authorise the use of force.

French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy has made it clear in a newspaper interview that the mission of the troops would not include disarming Hizbollah by force.

Prodi told US President George W Bush in a phone call today that Italy wanted ''a clear mandate, free from ambiguity'' for the force, his office said in a statement.

However, wary of irking his far-left and pacifists allies, he stopped short of spelling out what he believed the mandate should be.

Communist and Green parties in Prodi's patchwork coalition have criticised Italy's military presence not just in Iraq, but also as part of a NATO-led peacekeeping force in Afghanistan.

Prodi, who has a wafer-thin majority in the Senate, had to resort to a confidence vote last month to keep Italian troops in Afghanistan and is hoping to avoid a divisive debate this time around.

He has called a cabinet meeting for Friday to discuss the size and funding of the Italian contingent for Lebanon.

REUTERS DKA PM2251