ALEXANDRIA, Sept 5: Israel should lift its blockade of Lebanon within 48 hours, UN chief Kofi Annan said on Tuesday as he stepped up efforts to release Israeli prisoners and shore up a fragile truce in Lebanon.

Annan’s announcement of an imminent end to the crippling nearly eight-week air and sea blockade was the latest result obtained by the UN secretary general on his marathon tour of the Middle East.

In Egypt on the latest leg of his whistle-stop tour of the Middle East, Annan was asked by reporters after meeting President Hosni Mubarak if he expected Israel to lift its blockade of Lebanon.

“Yes, within 48 hours,” he answered. “Because we are all working very hard and with a bit of goodwill and reasonableness, we should be able to resolve it within the next 48 hours.”

Israel imposed its air and sea blockade on Lebanon shortly after unleashing its 34-day offensive against Hezbollah on July 12.

The Jewish state has said the blockade would be lifted once a UN-brokered truce that went into effect on August 14 has been implemented fully under Security Council Resolution 1701.

Hezbollah is demanding that Israel release Lebanese prisoners in exchange for the soldiers but the Jewish state made it clear it would not negotiate directly with the Shia movement, which it considers a terrorist organisation.

In an interview by the Lebanese newspaper As-Safir, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said his militants would not disarm but promised they would only use their weapons if Israel attacked.

—AFP