UN encouraged with latest offers for Lebanon peacekeeping

Troop commitments from France, Italy and several other European nations mean the United Nations will be able to deploy an initial force of 3,500 peacekeepers to south Lebanon in the coming days as it had hoped, a senior UN official said.

In a new York meeting of troop contributing nations yesterday, Italy and France confirmed that they will lead the early vanguard of peacekeepers, with hundreds more troops from other European nations – and possibly some Asian countries – to follow in the coming weeks. Italian troops could start deploying within two to three days.