Conditions not right for intl Gaza force-Italian PM

SDEROT, Israel, July 9 (Reuters) Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi today played down the prospects of deploying an international peacekeeping force in the Gaza Strip, saying conditions were not suitable.

Prodi's comments during a visit to the southern Israeli town of Sderot came after his foreign minister, Massimo D'Alema, had suggested Italy was prepared to consider sending troops to the coastal strip if requested by the Palestinian government.

''While in Lebanon we sent international troops because there was a common request from the parties, here (in Gaza) certainly, for now there are not the conditions to do the same thing,'' Prodi told reporters near the Gaza border with Israel.

Prodi toured Sderot, a town that is frequently hit by makeshift rockets fired by Palestinian militants from Gaza, with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said that an international force along the Gaza-Egypt border should be seriously considered.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who leads the secular Fatah faction, told French President Nicolas Sarkozy during a visit to Paris last month that he wanted an international peacekeeping force to move into Gaza in order to ensure free elections can be held there.

Hamas rejected Abbas's call and its armed wing vowed to attack any international troops like other ''occupation forces''.

Israel had long resisted Palestinian calls for international peacekeepers in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, saying their deployment would interfere with Israeli security measures.

But Israel signalled flexibility after last year's Lebanon war, which ended with a boosted UNIFIL (United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon) peacekeeper force in former Hezbollah guerrilla strongholds.

Italy is currently in command of the UNI