Lebanese troops deployed in south Lebanon on Thursday, linking up with UN peacekeepers to take control of Hizbollah strongholds as Israeli forces pulled back after their 34-day war with the guerrillas.
Hizbollah fighters melted away as the troops crossed the Litani River, some 20 km (13 miles) from the Israeli border, to take over a region the army has not controlled for decades. Dozens of people lined roads, waving red and white Lebanese flags and throwing rice and flowers in celebration. "May God protect you," 64-year-old Khadeeja Sheet yelled at the passing soldiers. "We support nobody except for our army."
A UN-backed truce halted the fighting on Monday. The Security Council adopted a resolution calling for the Lebanese army and an expanded UN force of up to 15,000 troops to deploy in the south and replace Hizbollah and Israeli forces.
More than 100 trucks, troop carriers and jeeps streamed across a makeshift bridge on the Litani to the mainly Christian town of Marjayoun, about eight km from the Israeli border.
UNIFIL, the 2,000-strong UN peacekeeping force already in Lebanon, said about 800 Lebanese troops had deployed in the Marjayoun area and some 500 around the town of Tibnin.
The Israeli army said it had begun "transferring responsibility" in the south in a staged process that was "conditional on the reinforcement of UNIFIL and the ability of the Lebanese army to take effective control of the area". The United Nations has said it hopes 3,500 new UN troops can join UNIFIL within two weeks.
More than 200,000 refugees have returned to the shattered south without waiting for the Israelis to complete their pullout and despite unexploded munitions strewn over the region.
Two children were killed by a cluster bomb explosion in the southern town of Naqoura on Thursday, UN officials said. There was no sign of Hizbollah guerrillas as the Lebanese troops moved south. Even unarmed members of the group seen on previous days riding around on scooters and giving instructions to people in the south had disappeared. Hizbollah has promised to cooperate with Lebanese and UN troops, but has made clear it will not disarm or quit the south.
At least 1,110 people in Lebanon and 157 Israelis were killed in the conflict that erupted after Hizbollah captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid on July 12.
AIR BLOCKADE EASES: A passenger flight landed at Beirut international airport for the first time in five weeks, easing an air blockade of Lebanon that Israel imposed throughout the war.
An airliner of Middle East Airlines, Lebanon's flag carrier, flew in from Jordan's capital Amman. A Royal Jordanian flight was due to follow. Scheduled flights are to resume next week.
An Israeli naval blockade remains in force, as part of an effort to stop Hizbollah from getting fresh arms supplies. Israel also wants the Turkish military to impose an air and ground embargo to prevent Iran funnelling weapons through Turkey to Syria and then Hizbollah, an Israeli security source said.
Iran says it gives Hizbollah only moral support.
The UN resolution called for an arms embargo against Hizbollah, which fired nearly 4,000 rockets at northern Israel, but did not spell out how it would be enforced.
France has said it is willing to lead the UN force so long as it had a clear mandate and sufficient strength, but Le Monde newspaper said Paris might send only a symbolic contingent, not the thousands of troops UN officials had hoped for.
Quoting UN and diplomatic sources, the daily said France was considering sending a dozen officers and some 200 members of an engineering division. It would also offer a rapid reaction force but would not place the troops under UN control.
UN sources in New York said officials were working hard to convince France to anchor the force and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan was expected to call President Jacques Chirac during the day to discuss the problem.
News of the French reticence surprised many UN officials and several Security Council diplomats commented privately that France had written most of the elements concerning the force in a UN resolution adopted last Friday.
"The fact that the French led the negotiations for the resolution shows a complete disconnect between the foreign and defence ministries," one diplomat said. "We understand their offer will be pretty weak. But it is not a done deal."
Italy, which could send up to 3,000 troops, said the UN force would help the Lebanese army impose its authority. "It is wrong to say that our soldiers are going to disarm Hizbollah," Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema told L'Espresso magazine.
Italy, like France, is demanding a clear definition of what the expanded UNIFIL will do and what powers it will have.
UN peacekeeping officials were to meet nations that might send troops later on Thursday to discuss the ground rules.
Indonesia and Malaysia have said they are willing to send 1,000 troops each - although neither country has diplomatic ties with Israel, which may lodge objections on those grounds.
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