Annan to press for an international force for Lebanon

Kofi Annan

UNITED NATIONS - UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he would press for a truce in the Middle East crisis as well as the deployment of an international force in south Lebanon at a Rome ministerial meeting this week.

He said yesterday that short-term measures were needed to halt the violence followed by a package that would include giving the Beirut government power over Hizbollah, releasing two abducted Israeli soldiers and settling Lebanon's borders.

"What is important is that we leave Rome with a concrete strategy as to how we are going to deal with this, and we do not walk away empty-handed and once again dash the hopes of those who are caught in this conflict," Annan told reporters.

The secretary-general, accompanied by Middle East envoy Terje Roed-Larsen, left yesterday for the conference on Wednesday, called by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Expected to attend the meeting, in addition to Rice, are senior diplomats from Britain, Italy, Spain, Germany, Canada Russia, Finland, Saudi Arabia, the European Union, the World Bank, the United Nations - and Lebanon, UN sources said.

It is unclear whether the proposed international force would try to disarm Lebanon's Hizbollah militia or go in only after Israel has ended its assault.

Annan said he initially saw the force as augmenting existing UN troops, but other nations wanted a multinational operation on the Lebanese-Israeli border authorized by the UN Security Council.

"The advantage of going with a non-UN force is that sometimes governments can deploy much faster," he said. "But others feel more comfortable with a UN force."

The UN Interim Force in Lebanon, UNIFIL, has some 2000 troops, but its mandate is weak. Rice has pushed for a "robust" force to replace them and Israel has indicated it could accept a force, preferably from Nato countries.

However, Egypt's UN Ambassador Maged Abdelaziz said first there had to be a cessation of hostilities, based on negotiations among the combatants.

"To have any [outside] force without any agreement between the parties, you are in danger of getting the force into a situation, where they are considered biased against one of the them," Abdelaziz said.

France and Turkey are high on the list for leading a new force, while Italy, Greece and Brazil have expressed willingness to join it, UN sources said.

The crisis began on July 12 when Hizbollah abducted two Israeli soldiers, triggering an intense military response by Israel, while Hizbollah rained missiles on northern Israel.

Annan said one could not "disarm Hizbollah by force alone" and a political deal was necessary supported by countries in the region. In the short-term, he said, urgent measures were needed to halt the violence and get humanitarian aid to hundreds of thousands of Lebanese uprooted by the fighting.

But Iran and Syria, backers of Hizbollah, are not invited to the Rome conference. Annan said he had been in touch with both governments and "we need to engage them".

Annan also suggested an international conference to delineate Lebanon's international borders, including the disputed Shebaa Farms area, a small strip of Israeli-controlled land near the junction of Syria, Lebanon and Israel.

Dozens of maps unearthed by the United Nations show the area belongs to Syria, but Lebanon says it is its territory. Hizbollah has used the issue as a pretext for its attacks against Israel.

- REUTERS