Lebanese Cabinet agrees to deploy troops south of Litani River but apparently skirts disarmament issue

BEIRUT, Lebanon — The Lebanese Cabinet agreed Wednesday to deploy the Lebanese army south of the Litani River starting the next day, a key demand of the cease-fire that halted 34 days of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. But it left unclear the issue of disarming the Islamic militant group.

The decision to start deploying the army on Thursday came as top foreign diplomats planned the dispatch of a 15,000-strong international force that eventually is to join the Lebanese troops in patrolling the region between the Israeli border and the river, 18 miles to the north.

French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said France is willing to lead the enlarged U.N. force in Lebanon until at least February. But she expressed concern that the force's mandate was "fuzzy" and said the peacekeepers need to have sufficient resources and a clear mission.

The divided Lebanese Cabinet, which includes two Hezbollah ministers, held its first meeting since the cease-fire went into effect on Monday. The 15,000 Lebanese troops and the U.N. peacekeepers will slowly take over territory from withdrawing Israeli forces. Israel had threatened to halt its withdrawal if the Lebanese force did not move south.

The government ordered the army, which has been assembling north of the river, to "insure respect" for the Blue Line, the U.N.-demarcated border between Lebanon and Israel, and "apply the existing laws with regard to any weapons outside the authority of the Lebanese state."

That provision does not require Hezbollah to give up its arms, but rather directs them to keep them off the streets. "There will be no authority or weapons other than those of the state," said Information Minister Ghazi Aridi said.

Hezbollah's top official in south Lebanon said the group welcomed the Lebanese army's deployment even as he hinted that the Shiite guerrillas would not disarm in the region or withdraw but rather melt into the local population and hide their weapons.

"Just like in the past, Hezbollah had no visible military presence and there will not be any visible presence now," Sheik Nabil Kaouk told reporters Wednesday in the southern port city of Tyre.

It will mark the first time Lebanon's national army moved in force to a region that was held by Palestinian guerrillas in the 1970s and by Hezbollah since Israel's troop withdrawal from the area in 2000.