UN observers to stay in Golan Heights through June

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 16 (Reuters) The UN Security Council has authorized a UN observer force to stay another six months in the Golan Heights, where it has served as a buffer between the Syrian and Israeli armies for 32 years.

The UN Disengagement Observer Force, known as UNDOF, was created in May 1974 to monitor a cease-fire and troop disengagement agreement that followed the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.

In that war, Israel repulsed an attempt by Arab states to take back land, including the Golan Heights, which the Jewish state had captured in the six-day 1967 Middle East war.

A resolution adopted unanimously by the 15-nation council yesterday extended the mandate of the 1,048 UN observers in the mountainous plateau overlooking Damascus through June 30, 2007.

Absent council action, the mandate would have expired at the end of this month.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in his final report on the Middle East before stepping down on December. 31, told the Security Council there could be no comprehensive Middle East peace until Israel returned the Golan Heights to Syria.

Without a comprehensive peace deal, the region was likely to remain tense, he said. South Korean Ban Ki-Moon is set to take over from Annan as UN leader on January. 1.

REUTERS PDS PM0627