European nations agreed today to offer more than half the troops for an expanded United Nations peacekeeping contingent in Lebanon.
UN chief Kofi Annan hailed the move as creating the backbone of a credible force, which could total up to 15,000 troops, even though EU officials warned it could be months before its full deployment.
Mr Annan called for the first troops to arrive in days to begin policing a fragile truce between Israel and Hizbullah and Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi said the Italian contingent could leave as soon as Tuesday.
"When you put it all together, Europe is providing the backbone to the force...We can now begin to put together a credible force that the (UN) Security Council authorised," he said after an emergency meeting of EU foreign ministers.
"We should deploy, I hope, within the next few days, not the next few weeks," he told a news conference. Clarifying doubts over the leadership of the mission, Mr Annan said he had asked France, who will contribute 2,000 troops, to continue to lead UNIFIL until February 2007.
The leadership would then pass to Italy, which has pledged up to 3,000 soldiers European countries feared getting caught in the crossfire of any fresh hostilities between Israel and Hizbullah guerrillas and wanted assurances they would operate under robust enough rules to be able to defend themselves, diplomats said.
"The significant move of the week was Annan coming here," said one envoy.
Aside from Italy and France, diplomats at the Brussels meeting said Spain was ready to send up to 1,200 troops. Poland said it was prepared to contribute about 500 troops, Belgium offered up to 400 and current EU president Finland said it was readying a company of up to 250.
French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said Europe's total contribution would be between 6,500 and 7,000, while Ireland's Dermot Ahern put it as high as 9,000 and Italy's Massimo d'Alema at as many as 10,000.
UN officials want a strong European contingent alongside a sizeable Muslim component in the expanded UNIFIL force, which is to work with 15,000 Lebanese troops being deployed in the south.
Mr Annan said Malaysia, Indonesia and Bangladesh had offered troops, and that he was in contact with Turkey over its role.
Highlighting divisions in the large Muslim country over the issue, Turkey's president said he opposed any role. "Sending soldiers is not our responsibility. I'm against it," private CNN Turk television quoted Ahmet Necdet Sezer as saying. The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), on the other hand, is known to favour sending troops.