Israel pulls out around border village-UNIFIL

BEIRUT, Nov 7 (Reuters) The commander of UN peacekeepers in Lebanon said after meeting senior Lebanese and Israeli officers today that Israeli troops pulled out from most of the surrounding area of a divided village.

Israel had completed its withdrawal from all but one small part of southern Lebanon at the start of October. Its forces remained in the divided village of Ghajar, which straddles the border between Lebanon and territory Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 West Asia war.

The UNIFIL statement said Israeli forces were still present inside the northern part of Ghajar and the immediate vicinity, inside Lebanese territory.

''I welcome the IDF (Israeli Defence Forces) withdrawal from the area around Ghajar. I hope that we will reach an agreement very soon for full IDF withdrawal from Lebanese territory ... including the northern part of Ghajar village,'' Major General Alain Pellegrini said in a statement.

UNIFIL, the statement said, will carry out patrols and set up temporary checkpoints in the area to confirm the IDF are no longer present there.

UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended a 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas in mid-August, requires Israel to withdraw fully from Lebanon.

Some 10,000 Lebanese soldiers have deployed across south Lebanon in place of Israeli troops as they withdrew and UNIFIL, in place since 1978, has boosted its numbers from around 2,000 before the war to some 9,500 since, including a navy patrol, to help maintain the truce.

Reuters AKJ GC2243