UNITED NATIONS, Aug 10: French and US envoys on Thursday inched closer to thrashing out their differences which have held up a UN Security Council draft resolution on the conflict in Lebanon.

Diplomats here said the two sides were closer than ever to an agreement on the language in the text acceptable to all parties.

A French official said voting on the resolution could take place on Friday.

US Ambassador John Bolton sought to put a positive spin on the negotiations with his French counterpart on the language of the proposed draft, saying that ‘it is not unrealistic to expect the resolution to go to blue [final text) tonight but there are no guarantees’. (The resolution is set in blue after the co-sponsors agree on the language).

Both Mr Bolton and his French counterpart, Jean-Marc de la Sabliere, said the proposed deployment of 15,000 Lebanese troops was significant and would be covered in a new draft resolution.

“We are getting closer on the way to resolving some of this but I don’t want to underestimate the central and operational difficulties,” Mr Bolton told reporters on Wednesday.

“There are areas where we are still not in agreement. There is no doubt about that. I don’t want to appear to minimise that,” Mr Bolton said.

On Thursday morning UN Secretary General Kofi Annan was briefed by the US and French envoys on the progress of negotiations over the proposed resolution.

Later Kofi Annan said in a statement that he expects the resolution to be adopted at the end of this week.

Diplomats hinted that a compromise could be found by stating Israel only has to start its withdrawal when fighting ends.

Lebanon, backed by the Arab League, wants all foreign troops to be part of a UN force, but France is expected to lead a separate UN-mandated mission, diplomats here sad.

Russia’s top diplomat at the UN appeared increasingly impatient at the failure of the 15-member body to take a first step to stop the fighting.

Russia’s Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said he was trying to get ambassadors to focus on the immediate need to stop the fighting and put in place a political process.

“The basic elements of what needs to be done are clear. But there are quite a few very complicated ideas about how these basic principles, the basic elements, are to be implemented,” Mr Churkin told reporters.