The government on Monday approved a decree greenlighting Italy's participation in the United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon, a decision easily expected to obtain parliamentary backing. President Giorgio Napolitano said the mission will have no problem garnering "ample consensus" in parliament since the centre-right opposition has already expressed its backing.
"This will be an essential factor in giving our soldiers the support they need," said the president, stressing that the mission was not a "cost but a responsibility" Italy was ready to shoulder.
Prime Minister Romano Prodi said Italian forces had prepared for the mission "diligently and (were) fully aware" of the task ahead.
Meanwhile, five Italian ships - including the aircraft carrier Garibaldi - were set to leave for Lebanon on Tuesday at a send-off ceremony to be attended by Prodi and Defence Minister Arturo Parisi.
Parisi said the government's decree would be placed on the parliamentary agenda "maybe as soon as the start of next week".
On Friday, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan told a meeting of European Union foreign ministers called to decide on European partecipation that France will lead the multinational force until February 2007 when command will be given to Italy.
Italy has offered to deploy up to 3,000 troops while French President Jacques Chirac on Thursday said his country was ready to bring the number of his country's troops up to 2,000.
The peacekeeping force will enter southern Lebanon underUN Resolution 1701, which requires the militant group Hezbollah and Israel to end their military operations and obliges Israel to withdraw its troops as soon as the UN troops arrive.
The Resolution, adopted on August 11, calls for an expansion of a UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon since 1978 to help some 15,000 Lebanese soldiers enforce the truce, which came into effect on August 14.
The 34-day conflict was triggered by a Hezbollah incursion into Israeli territory on July 12, when guerrillas belonging to the group killed eight Israeli soldiers and captured two others.
Some 1,000 Lebanese civilians and more than 115 Israelis, mostly soldiers, were killed during the fighting. Parisi said that in the first phase - expected to last by October at latest - some 1,000 Italian soldiers will be deployed.
A total of 2,450 soldiers will be put on the ground by the end of the second phase, expected to take another two months.
The government has earmarked 186.8 million euros for the mission till the end of the year, with 30 million euros allotted to humanitarian aid and reconstruction efforts, Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema said. In all, the cabinet agreed to earmark 220 million euros for the mission, Cabinet undersecretary Enrico Letta said. "It's not simple to predict how long the mission will last. The UN resolution gives the mission a mandate for all
of 2007. Maybe it will not last that long. What matters is that it is successful and shores up peace there," said D'Alema.
He also also dismissed reports that Italy was negotiating a prisoner exchange between Israel and Hezbollah, saying: "We are not involved in activities which we have not been tasked with".
