French troops arrive in Lebanon to reinforce UN

More than 200 French military engineers arrived at Beirut porton yesterday, the advance group of a battalion which will bolster a UN force set up to keep the peace between Israel and Hizbollah guerrillas.

"They are the forward group of a French battalion which is due to arrive next week," said Alexander Ivanko, spokesman for the UNIFIL peacekeepers.

Israel invaded south Lebanon and struck targets across the country after Hizbollah captured two of its soldiers in a cross-border raid on July 12.

It has been gradually withdrawing forces since an August 14 ceasefire and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has said it should complete the withdrawal once 5,000 UN troops are on the ground. The French troops which arrived yesterday brought the total UN force to around 3,350, Ivanko said. Between 200 and 300 French logistics specialists and engineers disembarked at the port, offloading six armoured carriers and 100 trucks. The UN force could reach 5,000 once the rest of the 700-strong French battalion arrive next week and an expected Spanish contingent of around 900 troops reach Lebanon, he added. But security sources say logistics problems, including painstaking demining operations in south Lebanon, could delay the actual deployment of the peacekeepers.

Under the UN Security Council resolution that halted the war, up to 15,000 UN troops are to join a similar number of Lebanese soldiers deploying in the south to secure a border zone free of any Israeli or armed Hizbollah presence. The French contingent arrived a day after Israel ended a two-month naval embargo which Lebanon said was hindering reconstruction of bridges, homes, roads and factories destroyed by Israeli bombardment during its 34-day war with Hizbollah.

Beirut port director Hassan Kraytem said four ships had arrived since the blockade was lifted on Friday, two container ships, and others with shipments of wheat and cars.

He said he hoped the port could recoup some of the $10 million-a-month revenue which it lost since July 12 by working through a backlog of shipments in the coming weeks. On Thursday, Israel lifted its air blockade of Lebanon, allowing commercial airliners to resume flights to Beirut airport, which was bombed early in the conflict.

Lebanese officials have estimated that five weeks of Israeli air strikes caused some $3.6 billion in damage to the country's infrastructure. Beirut has won pledges of billions of dollars in aid, mainly from wealthy oil producing Arab states.