UN says Lebanon peacekeeping force reaches 5,000

BEIRUT, Sep 19 (Reuters) The number of UN peacekeepers in Lebanon has grown to about 5,000, a spokesman said today, reaching a level which the United Nations sees as sufficient for Israel to complete its withdrawal from Lebanon.

UNIFIL spokesman Alexander Ivanko said the force numbered 4,950. ''We're there. We consider it to be 5,000,'' he added.

Ivanko said some French troops were still heading south from Beirut, but Italian and Spanish forces have already joined some 2,000 UNIFIL troops in position since before the 34-day war that ended last month.

The reinforcements will help maintain the August. 14 truce which halted the war between Israel and Hizbollah guerrillas.

Israel's military chief of staff was quoted as saying his army will complete a pullout from Lebanon within a few days.

Israel says it has already left more than80 per cent of land it seized, leaving it to UN peacekeepers and the Lebanese army.

Israel went to war after Hizbollah captured two Israeli soldiers and killed eight in a July 12 cross-border raid. Nearly 1,200 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and 157 Israelis, mostly soldiers, were killed in the conflict.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has said Israel should be able to complete its withdrawal once 5,000 peacekeepers were on the ground to support more than 10,000 Lebanese troops a UN source said have already deployed in the south.

Ivanko said a team of UNIFIL experts assessing security at Lebanon's ports and borders had toured the Syrian border. Israel says the Syrian border is a major gap in the enforcement of an international arms embargo stipulated by the August. 14 resolution to prevent Hizbollah re-arming.

REUTERS DKA RK1914