Nations Urged to Join U.N. Force in Lebanon

Italy pleaded Wednesday for more European troops to join an expanded United Nations peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon.

Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, whose country has offered to send the largest contingent, expressed frustration over efforts to raise the force mandated by a U.N. resolution that ended 34 days of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah fighters.

“The issue now is to have a sufficient number of troops to accomplish the peace mission efficiently,” Prodi told reporters at the Tuscan seaside resort of Castiglione della Pescaia, where he has been vacationing.

The cease-fire resolution authorized the expansion of the United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, from 2,000 troops to as many as 15,000. The peacekeepers are to help 15,000 Lebanese troops extend their authority into southern Lebanon, which has been controlled by Hezbollah, as Israel withdraws its soldiers.

Italian diplomats also appealed for more troop contributions at a meeting of European Union ambassadors at EU headquarters in Brussels, said Teemu Tanner, ambassador of Finland, which holds the EU’s rotating presidency.

Besides Italy, which is offering up to 3,000 soldiers, the nations considering troop contributions include Spain, Finland, Denmark, Germany, Greece and Belgium. Turkey, Morocco, Nepal, New Zealand and China also are considering offering troops.

France has offered 200 soldiers to double its contribution to the existing U.N. force.

The cease-fire was shaken Wednesday by artillery shells and explosions that killed three Lebanese troops and an Israeli soldier.

The Lebanese were killed as they dismantled an unexploded missile near the southern village of Tibnin, and the Israeli soldier died near Blida when his tank hit a land mine.

Israel called the situation in Lebanon dangerous.

“Time is working against those who would like to see this resolution applied,” Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said in Paris. “We are now in the most sensitive and explosive position.”