Lebanon to discuss UN force with Annan on Monday

BEIRUT, Aug 26 (Reuters) Lebanon will discuss the deployment of a beefed-up UN peacekeeping force with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in Beirut on Monday, a government official said today.

The official said the government will also press Annan to pressure Israel to lift its air and naval blockade of Lebanon, saying such measures violate a UN Security Council resolution that halted a 34-day war between Israel and Hizbollah.

European Union nations agreed yesterday in Brussels to offer more than half of the 15,000 peacekeeping force which the United Nations wants to help the Lebanese army police the truce, but warned it could take months before their full deployment.

Annan has called for the first troops to arrive in days and Italy said its contingent could leave for Lebanon as soon as Tuesday.

''He (Annan) will inform the prime minister about the results of the Brussels meeting and discuss the measures of the UN troops deployment,'' the official, a close aide to Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, said on condition of anonymity.

''But the government will press him first to pressure Israel to end its blockade on Lebanon because it violates Security Council resolution 1701 and threatens stability in Lebanon,'' he told Reuters.

The August 11 resolution calls for the reopening of Lebanon's ports but also urges Lebanon to secure its borders to prevent arms shipments to Hizbollah, which ignited the war when it captured two Israeli soldiers in a July 12 cross-border raid.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Siniora today she was ''exerting serious and persistent effort to lift the blockade on Beirut's international airport as soon as possible,'' Siniora's office said in a statement.

''The US Secretary stressed the importance that Lebanese authorities control the country's border crossings.'' Israel has partially lifted the air blockade, allowing commercial planes to fly from and to Beirut but only after undergoing security checks in Amman, Jordan.

A UN spokesman in Beirut confirmed that Annan would be arriving in the Lebanese capital on Monday and head to Israel the following day. Annan is also expected to visit Syria and Iran as part of his Middle East tour.

REUTERS PDM RAI2252