Israel will start withdrawing its troops from southern Lebanon as soon as the first 5,000 United Nations peacekeepers arrive, Italian Premier Romano Prodi said after talks with Israeli Deputy Prime Minister
Shimon Peres on Thursday.
The withdrawal will be "an important development because it will bring peace," the premier said at a joint news conference with Peres.
Peres said Israel was keen to begin bilateral negotiations with Beirut because it seeks "to build positive relations with Lebanon."
"We have nothing against the Lebanese," added Peres.
He then praised Italy's decision to participate in the UN peacekeeping mission. The force will enter southern Lebanon under UN Resolution 1701, which brokered a ceasefire in the 34-day conflict between Israel and the militant group Hezbollah.
The resolution requires Hezbollah and Israel to end their military operations and obliges Israel to withdraw its troops as soon as the UN troops arrive.
"If Italy had not decided to deploy troops in Lebanon, Resolution 1701 would have been a meaningless piece of paper," said Peres.
"Italy has a worldwide reputation as a great builder of bridges so it can promote peace efforts not just in Lebanon but throughout the region".
"We do not hold Italy's good relations with Arab countries and the Palestinians against it. It garners respect and appreciation from all those in the region." Peres said Rome had acted "swiftly and decisively" to help defuse the crisis and Israel "thanks it for all it is doing."
"Italy is not a country that steps in to gain something for itself but simply to help bring peace," he added.
Prodi recalled that he had discussed the situation in Lebanon with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during a phone conversation on Tuesday.
"Assad assured me that Syria would back Resolution 1701 and the UN peacekeeping force."
Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema told Syria on Wednesday that the international community "would not stand by idly" if it endangered a UN brokered ceasefire by sending arms to Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Syria should know that if it sends arms "the international community will find out and will not idly stand by," D'Alema told state broadcaster RAI radio. "We ask Syria to cooperate," D'Alema said. Before meeting Prodi, Peres referred to a suggestion by D'Alema on extending the UN force's mission to Gaza, saying this would largely depend on what happened in Lebanon. "Let's wait and see: achieving peace in Lebanon would help".
On Tuesday, Italy sent an advance contingent of some 1,000 Italian soldiers to take part in the mission, which it will lead from February 2007.
Italy has offered to deploy up to 3,000 soldiers, making it the biggest contingent in the multinational force which will be headed by France till February. 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.
