Annan to press Jordan and Syria on Lebanon truce

The trip to Syria poses the biggest challenge of the two for Annan because Israel is demanding U.N. peacekeepers in Lebanon should join the Lebanese army in policing the border to prevent weapons reaching the Lebanese Hizbollah guerrilla group.

Annan, already wrestling with Israel and Hizbollah over proposals to secure a lasting peace, will go to Damascus knowing Syria -- Hizbollah's main backer along with Iran -- has said it would consider such a deployment a hostile act.

Analysts say Lebanon is resisting Israel's demand for fear of antagonising Syria, which has threatened to close the border. It is Lebanon's sole land access to the outside world. Its only other border is with Israel, which Beirut does not recognise.

The analysts say Hizbollah has received most of its weaponry across the Syrian border, which the Lebanese army is now trying to bring under its full control.

Italian Foreign Minister Massino D'Alema, whose country has promised the most U.N. peacekeepers, said on Wednesday the international community would "not stand by and watch" if Syria sent arms to Lebanon, Italy's Ansa news agency reported.

On the third day of his Middle East tour on Wednesday, the tough nature of Annan's mission was underlined when Israel rejected his call for the Jewish state to lift a seven-week-old air and sea blockade of Lebanon.

ISRAELI STANCE

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told Annan he would end the blockade, imposed at the start of the war with Hizbollah, only when all aspects of a ceasefire were in place under a U.N. Security Council resolution that ushered it in on Aug. 14.

He also said he would not withdraw Israeli troops fully from southern Lebanon until the total implementation of the truce, which ended the 34-day war between Israel and Hizbollah.

Olmert's statements amounted to a rejection of the two main requests Annan had taken to Jerusalem, but the U.N. head told reporters: "There isn't that much of a difference between Prime Minister Olmert and myself."

Annan had called the blockade, an Israeli stranglehold on Lebanese international trade and civilian movements, a "humiliation and infringement of (Lebanon's) sovereignty".

He is demanding all sides fully and swiftly implement the Security Council resolution, which called for the existing U.N. force in Lebanon to be beefed up from 2,000 troops to 15,000 by Nov. 4 to help enforce the truce.

Annan has been unable to persuade Hizbollah so far to release without condition the two Israeli soldiers captured in a cross-border raid on July 12 that triggered the war.

Hizbollah wants Israel to release thousands of prisoners, including Lebanese, in return.

The war cost the lives of nearly 1,200 people in Lebanon, mainly civilians, and 157 Israelis, mostly soldiers.

In Damascus, official sources said Annan would have talks with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem on Thursday evening and President Bashar al-Assad on Friday.

Annan is expected to bring up part of the Security Council resolution that tells Lebanon's neighbours to make sure no weapons cross into the country without Beirut's approval.

DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS

He will also press Syria to set up formal diplomatic relations with Lebanon for the first time in the modern history of the two neighbours.

The Lebanese government sees diplomatic relations as a symbol of the country's independence from its more powerful neighbour, which intervened in Lebanon in 1976 to stop a civil war and stationed troops in the country until 2005.

Earlier on Thursday, Annan is expected to meet Jordan's King Abdullah and Foreign Minister Abdelelah al-Khatib in Amman. The talks are likely to cover the Hizbollah-Israel truce and fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants.

Israeli forces killed four Palestinian gunmen and four civilians on Wednesday as they targeted an Islamic militant stronghold in Gaza City, medics and witnesses said.

At least 200 Palestinians, about half of them civilians, have been killed in the Gaza Strip in a two-month-old offensive that Israel launched after militants abducted a soldier.

(Additional reporting by Luke Baker and Jonathan Saul in Jerusalem, Nadim Ladki in Beirut)

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