JERUSALEM, Sept 27: Disputes over how the Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers will deal with Hezbollah fighters is holding up the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Lebanon, Israel’s military chief of staff said on Wednesday.

“Yesterday we met with UNIFIL and the Lebanese army,” a government official quoted Lt Gen Dan Halutz as saying, referring to talks held under the auspices of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon.

“The issues of rules of engagement and enforcement of (UN Security Council) Resolution 1701 have not all been agreed upon. At this stage we are delaying the transfer of the territory until we reach agreement,” Gen Halutz said.

The army chief said that Israel considered ‘any use of military equipment, including intelligence gathering means which are not of the Lebanese army or UNIFIL are violations’ of UN Resolution 1701, which ended the 34-day war against Hezbollah on Aug 14.

“We have made it clear that we will act in self defence against any suspected terror activity,” the official quoted Gen Halutz as saying.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was quoted by an official as saying ‘we must insist on the application of Resolution 1701 and adherence to it’.

“We must continue to monitor its application. The situation today is much better than before July 12 (the start of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon), but if necessary, we will have to react with the tools we have.”

The Israeli press had earlier highlighted disputes over rules of engagement as being obstacles to a final pullout.

“The main issue that has still not been finalised revolves around the way that Lebanese army and peacekeepers will deal with armed Hezbollah militants who are identified south of the Litani River,” wrote the liberal Haaretz.

Israel expects UNIFIL and the Lebanese army to ‘initiate efforts to locate arms depots and armed Hezbollah militants and disarm them’, the paper said.

However, it wrote that UNIFIL views itself as ‘a police force, which will only fire if it is fired upon, in an act of self-defence’.

Maariv, Israel’s second-largest daily, wrote quoting military sources: “The main disagreements were over UNIFIL rules of engagement.”

Despite the snags, UN and Israeli officials insisted after Tuesday’s inconclusive meeting that the problems were not intractable.

Gen Alain Pellegrini, UNIFIL commander, said the meeting had been ‘constructive’ and that the withdrawal could still go ahead by Saturday.

But a source close to UNIFIL said there were ‘contradictions and problems ... as the Israeli high command is saying something and the Israeli prime minister is saying something else’.

The source declined to elaborate.

Disagreements over what the rules of engagement should be contributed to delaying a decision by UN members to commit troops to an expanded UNIFIL.

Resolution 1701 is vague on the question.

It calls for establishing ‘an area free of any armed personnel, assets and weapons other than those of the government of Lebanon and of UNIFIL’ between the Israeli border and the Litani, a strategic waterway that runs between five and 30 kilometres north of the border.

It stipulates that UNIFIL should ‘assist the Lebanese armed forces’ in achieving that.

Hezbollah has agreed to abide by the ceasefire, but has resolutely refused to lay down its arms until it is satisfied that Israel has ended its occupation of Lebanese territory.

In an interview two weeks ago, the French general who commands UNIFIL said the force would act on its own if necessary.

“If the (Lebanese army) fails to act, we must assume our responsibilities as a UN force,” Gen Alain Pellegrini said. “Someone will have to intervene, with all the consequences that this might have for the Lebanese authorities.”

Israel has twice pushed back the date for withdrawing its remaining several hundred troops from south Lebanon.

It had originally said it would pull back the soldiers by last Friday, then announced a delay until early this week. On Tuesday it said it hoped to withdraw the remaining troops by the end of this week or the beginning of next.—AFP