Israel begins lifting blockade of Lebanon

BEIRUT, Sep 7 (Reuters) Israel today began to lift a blockade of Lebanon imposed when it went to war with Hizbollah guerrillas eight weeks ago and a Lebanese airliner landed at Beirut's patched-up airport to mark the moment.

The West Asian Airlines flight from Paris circled over Beirut to celebrate the demise of the air embargo after intense diplomacy led by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

A naval blockade would continue until an international force was deployed off the coast, Israel said.

''What starts at 2030 hrs ist is a gradual process, it could take hours or a day (to complete),'' said Miri Eisen, a spokeswoman for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

The Beirut government has asked the United Nations to help patrol its territorial waters. Italian and French naval vessels were expected to begin monitoring the coast now until a German-led naval contingent can take over.

Many countries have criticised the blockade, which Israel said was aimed at stopping Hizbollah from rearming after the 34-day war, but which Lebanon saw as collective punishment.

''The direct impact of the blockade on trade activity alone is estimated at around million a day,'' Finance Minister Jihad Azour told Reuters.

Ordinary Lebanese said they would be glad to see the end of Israel's partial siege, but remained worried about the future.

''I am lost like many others,'' said 25-year-old job-seeker Dania Atrouni. ''I hope this means the war is over in Lebanon ...

but I no longer have faith that nothing (bad) will happen.'' GERMAN SECURITY EXPERTS German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier arrived in Beirut with four police and customs experts who will advise Lebanese authorities on airport security.

A German embassy spokesman said it was not yet clear how the experts, to be joined by five more later, would relate to the United Nations peacekeeping force that is being expanded to uphold a shaky truce between Israel and Hizbollah guerrillas.

Israel bombed Beirut airport and coastal radars and barred shipping from Lebanese ports after Hizbollah captured two of its soldiers in a cross-border raid on July 12.

Benny Regev, brother of one of the soldiers, Eldad Regev, said he feared the pair could be spirited to Iran. ''The abducted soldiers are currently in Lebanon. When the blockade is lifted, they could be taken to Tehran,'' he told Israel Army Radio.

Lebanon's Foreign Minister Fawzi Salloukh, who is close to Hizbollah, said the two soldiers could only be freed after negotiations for the release of Lebanese prisoners in Israel.

''There will be no discrimination between an Israeli hostage and a Lebanese hostage,'' he told Reuters in Cairo.

Annan has said he will send a secret envoy to the region this week to work on the issue, one of several unfulfilled elements in the UN resolution that halted the conflict.

Another is the continued presence of Israeli troops in some pockets of south Lebanon they seized in the war and in the Shebaa Farms area, claimed by Lebanon, but viewed by the United Nations as Syrian territory occupied by Israel in the 1967 war.

Under the UN Security Council resolution that halted the war on August 14, up to 15,000 UN troops are to join a similar number of Lebanese soldiers deploying in the south to secure a border zone free of any Israeli or armed Hizbollah presence.

Annan, speaking in Madrid after an 11-day trip to the West Asia, said Israel should withdraw completely by mid-month and should not wait for all 15,000 UN troops to arrive.

''They have to leave for the others to be able to deploy,'' he told a news conference with Spain's Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero regarding the force, in which 1,100 Spanish troops are set to take part.

The United Nations expects to have 5,000 troops in Lebanon by mid-September, backed by 16,000 Lebanese troops that are already moving into former Hizbollah strongholds, Annan said.

''In my judgment, an international force of 5,000, plus 16,000, is a credible force,'' he added.

REUTERS KD KP2210