Israel to lift Lebanon blockade today

Israel said yesterday it would lift an eight-week-old air and sea blockade against Lebanon today, handing over control to international forces.

Shortly after the announcement, Lebanon formally asked UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan - who brokered the end of the blockade - to authorise the deployment of German naval ships to monitor the Lebanese coast.

French, Italian and Greek naval ships are expected to be deployed until Germany takes over the sea patrols.

Israel said Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had been told by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Annan that "international forces are ready to take over control posts over the sea ports and airports of Lebanon".

"Thus it was was agreed that tomorrow at 6 p.m. (1500 GMT), Israel will leave the control positions over the ports in conjunction with the entry of the international forces," a statement from Mr Olmert's office said.

Israel imposed the embargo, bombing Beirut airport and denying ships access to Lebanese ports, a day after Hizbollah captured two of its soldiers on July 12 and sparked a war that was halted by a UN-brokered truce nearly five weeks later. Lebanon had vowed to bust the blockade if it was not lifted by tomorrow.

In a sign the end of the embargo was imminent, British Airways said it was resuming direct flights to Beirut after the British government gave assurances it would be safe to do so.

Lebanon's Middle East Airlines and Royal Jordanian began flying regularly into the capital last month, but have complied with Israel's insistence all such flights go via Amman. Qatar Airways resumed direct flights to Beirut on Monday.

Israel said it reserved the right to take action to stop any arms smuggling across the Syrian border to the Lebanese Hizbollah guerrilla group until full implementation of the UN Security Council resolution that ushered in the August 14 truce.

"We will continue to supervise to see that no weapons arrive through the Syrian-Lebanese border," Miri Eisin, a spokesman for Mr Olmert said.

"We see international forces as the best solution ... Until there is an accepted solution to the way (the UN Security Council ban on arms shipments) can be implemented, Israel will continue to act in self-defence to make sure no arms arrive."