France ties Lebanon deployment to Hezbollah disarmament

France, expected to be the lead nation for a UN force to be deployed to Lebanon, has said it will not commit to sending any soldiers without guarantees the Shia militia will lay down its arms.

"Time is of the essence," Douste-Blazy told French television ahead of taking a flight to Cyprus, from where he was going to go on to Beirut for a meeting Wednesday with Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora.

"The Lebanese army has to be deployed in the south, with support from Unifil (the UN Interim Force in Lebanon)," he said.

"Hezbollah will disengage and Hezbollah will disarm according to a plan that will be set out by the Lebanese government," he said.

France, which is expected to supply up to 4,000 soldiers to Unifil and command the UN force, is concerned that its men and other foreign soldiers could be targeted for Hezbollah attacks if the disarming process is not guaranteed before a deployment.

Foremost is fear of a repeat of 1983 suicide attacks in Beirut attributed to a Hezbollah faction that killed 58 French soldiers and 241 US Marines.

Douste-Blazy has said that UN resolution 1701, which gives the mandate for an expanded Unifil of 15,000 international troops, contained "obligations" that had to be observed.

In particular, the resolution calls for Israel and Lebanon to support a solution based on previous UN resolutions requiring "the disarmament of all armed groups in Lebanon" apart from state security forces.

But Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah late Monday vowed that his fighters would not be forced to disarm by "intimidation or pressure."

And Lebanese Defence Minister Elias Murr said Monday that his country's army "won't be deployed to south Lebanon to disarm Hezbollah, something which Israel wasn't able to do itself."

While Unifil's mandate within the new resolution does not require the foreign troops to disarm Hezbollah themselves, the force is authorised "to ensure that its area of operations is not utilized for hostile activities of any kind" and to support the Lebanese army in asserting control over all of Lebanon.

Douste-Blazy's visit to Lebanon was to be his fourth since the conflict started July 12 -- and the first since it ended with a tenuous ceasefire that came into effect on Monday.