The State Department also revved up efforts to cobble together an international force for the war zone as a top US envoy shuttled from Brussels to Paris and Ankara to gauge the willingness of potential participants.

The US commitment to the Lebanese army came as crisis talks in Washington between US President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair saw both leaders express a desire to quickly send troops into the Lebanese war zone.

"We intend to provide 10 million dollars to the Lebanese army," State Department spokesman Tom Casey told reporters.

The aid is meant to help Lebanon modernize its force by purchasing spare parts for armored personnel carriers and other vehicles needed or armed patrols. Casey said some money would also go for communications equipment.

Congress must still approve the assistance.

World powers are due to meet at the United Nations Monday to discuss the international troop commitment and Casey said US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice -- who will shuttle back to Israel on Saturday -- telephoned UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on the subject Friday.

Another top US official was in Brussels on Thursday negotiating the initial details on a multinational team. Washington has already said it would not be sending troops to Lebanon and NATO officials have also said their forces were already stretched thin.

State Department counselor Philip Zelikow met Thursday with European Union and NATO officials in Brussels and continued his talks in Paris on Friday before flying to Turkey -- which has been mentioned as a possible lead participant in the coalition.

Turkey's foreign minister said Thursday that details of the force and its mandate were still too sketchy for his country to commit.

"Efforts and consultations ... are underway both in the region and in Europe with respect to an international force," Casey said of Zelikow's efforts.

"Those conversations are, as we described yesterday, about both the structure of the international force and about the possibilities of various individual countries or institutional players for being able to contribute to that."

Casey stressed that the deployment would be limited to Lebanon's southern border region with Israel.

"My understanding right now is that we are talking about deployment in the south, in the area where there has been fighting."

Community
Email This Article
Comment On This Article

Related Links
Nuclear Space Technology at Space-Travel.com

Memory Foam Mattress Review

SPACE MEDIA NETWORK PROMOTIONS Solar Energy Solutions Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison ... Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News