UN pressed to get advance troops into Lebanon

United Nations, Aug 16: Under pressure to dispatch troops quickly to Lebanon, the United Nations wants to deploy up to 3,500 new soldiers within two weeks to oversee a fragile truce and Israel's withdrawal from the south.

Key to the operation is France, which has not yet said it would lead the expanded UN force. today a French military planning team is to confer with UN officials on how to implement the Security Council's mandate.

Also on Wednesday, Israel's Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, concerned that Hizbollah guerrillas would fill a vacuum in southern Lebanon, sees UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on UN troop plans.

The 15-nation council last Friday unanimously adopted a resolution calling for a truce in the one-month war between Israel and Hizbollah guerrillas. It authorized up to 13,000 well-armed troops to augment the 2,000-strong UN force now in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, for a total of 15,000.

Hedi Annabi, an assistant secretary general for peacekeeping, said on Tuesday he hoped for an advance deployment of up to 3,500 troops within 10 to 15 days to aid a withdrawal of Israeli troops and their replacement by the Lebanese army.

''The initial steps can be taken even before the deployment if the political will is there,'' Annabi said. ''We will be very happy if France agrees to provide a significant contribution that will provide the backbone of the force.'' Other Western European nations as well as Turkey, Indonesia and Malaysia have indicated a willingness to join on condition that France does, said a senior UN official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the delicate negotiations.

Israel's top general, Dan Halutz, said Israeli forces could complete their withdrawal within 7 to 10 days.

The truce to end fighting began early Monday and has largely held. At least 1,110 people in Lebanon and 157 people in Israel died in the war that began after Hizbollah seized two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid on July 12.

HIZBOLLAH DISARMAMENT?

There were no assurances that Hizbollah's militia would be disarmed as called for in a 2004 UN resolution and referred to again in Friday's Security Council resolution.

Hizbollah leaders have rebuffed any idea of disarming.Lebanese Defense Minister Elias al-Murr has the army would not disarm Hizbollah in the south.

And UN peacekeepers, who are to help the Lebanese army, will not forcibly disarm Hizbollah on their own, UN and other officials have said.

''I don't think there is an expectation that this (UN) force is going to physically disarm Hezbollah,'' US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in an interview in today's edition of USA Today.

''You have to have a plan, first of all, for the disarmament of the militia, and then the hope is that some people lay down their arms voluntarily,'' Rice said.

The United Nations is helping to arrange a withdrawal timeline.

Israeli troops are to hand over positions to UNIFIL peacekeepers as the Lebanese armed forces deploy in the south, the UN official said.

The UN resolution aims to create a demilitarized zone free of militia from the Litani River, 20 km north of the Israeli border, to the frontier.

Sources in Beirut said the Lebanese army would begin moving 15,000 troops south of the Litani River on Thursday.

The Israeli withdrawal would start in Marjayoun in the northeast, and move toward the Israeli border, the UN official said.

REUTERS

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