Lebanese army troops beefed up their deployment on the Syrian border today as European Union nations debated joining a UN force to take over south Lebanese flashpoints from Israeli troops and Hizbullah fighters.
Trying to bolster a UN truce that halted Israel's 34-day war with Hizbullah, more Lebanese troops moved into border posts in the south-eastern Bekaa Valley, security sources said.
The army has been tightening its grip on the border in response to a Security Council resolution that demanded an end to arms supplies to Hizbullah, whose main allies are Syria and Iran, as part of arrangements to restore peace in Lebanon.
French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said one of the main tasks for a strengthened UN force would be to enforce the arms embargo.
He shrugged off a warning by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad yesterday that deploying foreign troops on the Syrian-Lebanese border would be a hostile act.
"The reinforced UNIFIL will have two major tasks," Douste-Blazy told France 2 television. "On the one hand it will be there to enable the Lebanese army to deploy (to the south) and on the other hand it will be there to safeguard the arms embargo at all the borders. I repeat, at all the borders."
Israel has called on UN troops to police Lebanese-Syrian border crossings to prevent weapons reaching Hizbullah, citing this as a reason for not fully lifting an air and sea blockade it imposed on Lebanon when the conflict erupted.
The United Nations is trying to assemble a force of 15,000 troops, known as UNIFIL, to monitor the truce in Lebanon.
UN envoy Terje Roed-Larsen said yetserday it could take three months to fill the postwar "security vacuum" and said even unintended incidents could reignite fighting.
The Lebanese army has already deployed about 2,000 troops on the Syrian border and Roed-Larsen said government officials had indicated they would seek UN help in monitoring the crossings.
France has sent only 200 troops, instead of an expected 2,000 or more, to bolster UNIFIL but Douste-Blazy indicated that more could follow once the terms of the mission are set.
Israel has refused to withdraw fully from the south until more UNIFIL troops arrive to back up the 15,000 Lebanese troops who have begun moving into Hizbullahstrongholds in the region.
Doubts remain over how substantial a contingent the European Union will provide for the UN force.
Italy will press envoys from fellow EU states in Brussels today to back up its pledge of troops with their own soldiers, two days before a meeting of EU foreign ministers that UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan is due to attend.