UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Friday European nations would provide the backbone of a 15,000-strong United Nations peace force for Lebanon and he had asked France to lead it.
Long-awaited clarification over the leadership of the force came after Annan held emergency talks with European foreign ministers to overcome EU members' reluctance to send soldiers on what is seen as a risky mission.
"When you put it all together, Europe is providing the backbone to the force, and I am very, very encouraged by the ... commitments we have received here at this meeting," he said.
Countries feared getting caught in the crossfire of any fresh hostilities between Israel and Hizbollah guerrillas and wanted assurances they would be able to defend themselves adequately, diplomats said.
"The significant move of the week was Annan coming here," said one envoy, adding that his presence reassured a number of nations that had previously hesitated to confirm pledges.
After Italy pledged up to 3,000 troops and France 2,000, diplomats at the Brussels meeting said Spain was ready to send up to 1,200 troops.
Poland said it was prepared to contribute about 500 troops, Belgium offered up to 400 and a diplomat from current EU president Finland said it was readying a company of up to 250.
French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said Europe's total contribution would be between 6,500 and 7,000 troops. Irish Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern said it would be 8,000 to 9,000. That would make the Europeans the core of the UN force.
Asked before meeting the ministers whether he expected to be able to raise all the troops he sought to police a fragile truce, Annan said: "Not today, but I will get the 15,000."
After the talks, he told a news conference: "I have asked France to lead UNIFIL II until February 2007", adding that the leadership would then rotate to Italy.
FRANCE PERPLEXED But even as deployments began, French President Jacques Chirac, whose diplomats helped draft the August 11 UN Security Council resolution that authorised up to 15,000 peacekeepers to deploy in Lebanon, said that number was "completely excessive". "It doesn't really make sense. So what is the right number, 4,000, 5,000 or 6,000? I don't know," he told a news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Paris.
UN officials want a strong European contingent alongside a sizeable Muslim component in the expanded UNIFIL force, which is to work with 15,000 Lebanese troops being deployed in the south. Malaysia, Indonesia and Nepal have offered contingents, while Turkey and Bangladesh are considering doing so.
The UN-backed truce took effect on August 14 after 34 days of fighting which cost the lives of nearly 1,200 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and 157 Israelis, mainly soldiers. EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said he was confident EU nations would together be able to form the core of the force.
Some 150 French soldiers arrived by ship in Lebanon's southern port of Naqoura on Friday to join 50 extra troops already sent as part of France's first offer of 200.
Chirac defended his initial reluctance to send a big UN contingent, saying he would have been attacked as a "mad dog" had he authorised higher numbers without first gaining clear assurances about their mission and right to self-defence.
Israel wants the beefed-up UN force to move to the border before it withdraws fully from Lebanon. It also has vowed to keep its partial sea and air blockade on Lebanon until the force deploys on the Syrian border to prevent Hizbollah from rearming.
Syria has threatened to close the border - Lebanon's only land outlet - if UN troops are sent there. "At the moment we are seeing some very unconstructive signals from Syria," Germany's Merkel said.
OMERT MAY RESIGN: In a sharp public rebuke for failing to deliver a fatal blow to Hizbollah, a poll published on Friday showed 63 percent of Israelis want Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to resign.
The Yedioth Aronoth poll showed for the first time a majority favoured Olmert quitting, along with a surge in support for the rightwing Likud party and its leader Benjamin Netanyahu.
Israel has also pursued an offensive against Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip, where hospital officials said eight people were wounded on Friday in air strikes on the home of a Palestinian militant and what the army said was a weapons depot.
The Israeli army has been trying to force the release of an Israeli soldier seized by militants from Gaza on June 25. There has been no word on his fate, but the Hamas-led Palestinian government said progress was being made towards the release of a Fox News correspondent and cameraman seized by gunmen in the Gaza Strip on August 14.
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