Israel announced this evening that its army would leave all "control posts" at ports, airports in Lebanon by 4pm (Irish time) tomorrow afternoon.
The move came after Lebanese Foreign Minister Fawzi Salloukh said his country would break Israel's blockade by force if it is not lifted in a 48-hour timeframe indicated by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
"We will wait for the 48 hours given by Kofi Annan, and if the situation is resolved, we will thank him. If it is not, the Lebanese govenrment will take the necesssary measures and we will break the blockade with all our might," Mr Salloukh told journalists on the sidelines of an Arab foreign ministers meeting in Cairo.
A Lebanese soldier gestures as he stands on top of an armoured personnel carrier at an outpost in Kafir Kila, southern Lebanon, yesterday near the border with Israel
Earlier two Lebanese soldiers were killed and a third wounded today when they tried to defuse Israeli landmines in southern Lebanon, a security official said.
The fatalities brought to sixth the number of deaths recorded by the Lebanese army since it began deploying in the south on August 17th after a UN-brokered truce halted a 34-day war between Israel and Hizbollah guerrillas.
The United Nations has confirmed nearly 400 Israeli cluster bomb strikes across south Lebanon and says the bomblets have killed 14 people and wounded at least 50 since the truce.