JERUSALEM, Dec 3: Israel decided on Sunday to hand over to UN peacekeepers responsibility for a village on the Lebanese border, government officials said, a step that would complete an Israeli pullout from Lebanon.

Nearly all Israeli forces in southern Lebanon withdrew in October, two months after a 34-day war against Hezbollah guerrillas ended in a truce.

But Israeli soldiers remained in the divided village of Ghajar with the declared aim of stopping smuggling and infiltration. The village straddles the border between Lebanon and Israel.

UNIFIL, a peacekeeping force monitoring the ceasefire, has said Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon would be complete once its troops left the northern part of Ghajar.—Reuters