The United Nations urged Lebanon to set its borders with Syria and disband the Iranian and Syrian-backed Hizbollah militia so it can be master of its own nation, a call Hizbollah on Wednesday immediately rejected.
In turn, Syria should take up Beirut's offer of establishing diplomatic relations as well as demarcating the entire 160-mile (250-km) boundary between the two countries, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in the report obtained late on Tuesday.
"A united Lebanon has offered an out-stretched hand to Syria," Annan said. "I call on Syria to accept this offer and undertake measures, in particular, to establish embassies and delineate the border between Syria and Lebanon."
The 23-page report, prepared by UN envoy Terje Roed-Larsen, is a response to Security Council resolution 1559 of September 2004 that called for Syria to withdraw from Lebanon and for Lebanon to disarm militia so the Beirut government could control the entire country.
Syria and Lebanon have not had embassies on each other's territory since Western powers carved the two states out of the remnants of the Ottoman empire in 1920. Damascus says its many bilateral ties rather than embassies suffice for the present.
Damascus, which entered Lebanon in 1976 to quell a civil war, pulled its troops out a year ago after the killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri and 22 others, which many blamed on Syria but which it denies. The murders resulted in mass anti-Syrian demonstrations.
Hizbollah, whose attacks helped end Israel's 22-year occupation of southern Lebanon in 2000, has made no move to disband and join the Lebanese army.
In response to the report, a Hizbollah parliamentarian told Lebanon television the group would not disband. Ali Ammar accused Roed-Larsen of trying "to meet the demands of the Israeli agenda through the Lebanese gate."
Annan's report, in a footnote, said also for the first time that Hizbollah had "close ties with frequent contacts and regular communication" with Syria and Iran and asked both countries to cooperate with the "farsighted" Beirut government.
Hizbollah's existence is linked directly to the border controversy, with the militia maintaining it provides resistance against a strip of the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, known as the Shebaa farms.
The United Nations, using dozens of maps, say Shebaa is part of Syria but the two nations were free to change the border, which they have not.
"Its current status as Israeli-occupied Syrian territory, does, however, remain valid unless and until the Governments of Lebanon and Syria take steps under international law to alter that status," Annan said.
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