Success yesterday by EU foreign ministers in at last putting together the "backbone" of a UN force for Lebanon has laid the basis for Irish participation in the mission, writes Honor Mahony in Brussels
The ministers, meeting in Brussels with the secretary general of the UN, Kofi Annan, in attendance, have paved the way for thousands of UN troops to be deployed within the next week to oversee the fragile ceasefire in Lebanon.
EU member states committed about 7,000 ground troops and an additional 2,000 specialist forces, mainly naval and air support.
Minister for Foreign Afairs Dermot Ahern said the increased size of the EU commitment meant that Ireland could now consider making a "substantive contribution to the mission".
"We needed really to know that there was going to be a substantial force there," Mr Ahern told journalists following the meeting.
Irish soldiers - probably about 100 - are unlikely to be sent in the first wave in September, but Mr Ahern said that troops could eventually be sent in the second or third wave - in October or November.
Mr Annan welcomed the EU commitments. "More than half the force has been pledged today. Not only troops on the ground, but we also got naval assets as well as air assets and when you put it altogether Europe is providing the backbone to the force," he said.
"We're approaching this in three phases. The first phase, we would want to get in about 3,000 to 4,000 men very quickly, in the next few days or a week. And then we will have a second and a third phase to complete our deployment."
Italy will send the most troops with 3,000, while France sends 2,000 and Spain 1,200. Paris and Rome will also share ground leadership, with France in charge until February, when Italy will take over.
Several other EU countries are also contributing, with Poland pledging 500 soldiers and Belgium up to 400. Britain, Germany, Greece and Denmark offered to contribute to the 2,000 specialist forces.
The total number of troops foreseen under the UN resolution is 15,000.
Mr Ahern said Ireland was among the "more positive" of the small countries about what it could do and said there would be discussions with other like-minded countries - thought to include Sweden, Finland and Austria.
The EU's firm commitments bring to an end weeks of wait-and-see diplomacy which had reflected poorly on the bloc - and particularly on France.
Outside the EU, Turkey, China, Nepal, New Zealand and other countries are considering offering troops.
Israel is opposed to troops pledged by Indonesia, Malaysia and Bangladesh, predominantly Muslim countries with which it has no diplomatic ties. But Mr Annan said yesterday he had received "firm commitments" from these countries.
Referring to the unclear mandate, which had caused so many countries to hesitate, Mr Annan told foreign ministers that Hizbullah would be disarmed only as part of a political process, but that if the force encountered a situation at a tactical level, it would be able to act.
Following the Brussels meeting Mr Annan flew to the Middle East to discuss outstanding problems with the Lebanese and Israeli governments, as well as Iran and Syria, ahead of the full deployment.
The secretary general joined forces with Javier Solana, the EU's head of foreign and security policy, in demanding that Israel lift its blockade of Lebanese ports and Beirut airport at once to enable the peacekeeping forces to fulfil their mission and to allow the reconstruction of the country to begin and humanitarian aid to flow. - (Additional reporting Guardian service)