ROME: Israel will completely withdraw from southern Lebanon when 5,000 UN troops are on the ground there, Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi said on Thursday.             

 

Prodi said Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres made the undertaking during talks in Rome.          

 

"This is an important fact because it will help peace," said Prodi, whose government's offer of some 2,500 troops for the expanded UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon is the largest contribution so far.              

 

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan told French radio on Thursday that he had also received assurances from the Israeli government that Israeli forces will completely withdraw from southern Lebanon with the arrival of 5,000 UN troops.        

 

"We agreed that with 5,000 UN troops and 16,000 Lebanese soldiers who will go down south, it would be a credible force to allow the Israelis to pull out entirely," Annan said on Europe 1 radio.    

 

The UN chief said such an international force could be in place within a week to 10 days. "At that point, the Israelis will be forced to pull out," he said.          

 

The Israeli army confirmed earlier Thursday that it had withdrawn from eastern parts of southern Lebanon, transferring control to UN forces for the first time since the end of the 34-day war with the Hezbollah militia.              

 

A spokeswoman said the army had withdrawn from more than two thirds of the area it had occupied during the conflict, which ended with a UN-brokered ceasefire that halted the fighting on August 14.             

 

Under UN Security Council Resolution 1701, Lebanese troops are to patrol south Lebanon along with a beefed-up UN peacekeeping force. Italy aims to deploy 2,450 ground soldiers in two phases spread over four months.