Lebanon orders troop deployment

BEIRUT -- Breaking an impasse, the Lebanese government yesterday ordered army troops to deploy across southern Lebanon under a compromise arrangement that allows the Hezbollah militia to retain some of its arms caches near the border with Israel.

Military authorities said that as many as 15,000 troops would begin taking up positions in devastated southern villages. Early today, a column of trucks, jeeps, and troop carriers began crossing the Litani River, about 13 miles from the Israeli border, from several points.

Dozens of people lined roads as they passed, waving Lebanese flags and throwing rice and flowers in celebration.

Also this morning, the Israeli army said it had begun handing over territory to the United Nations. And Israel TV's Channel Two reported that all Israeli reservists had left Lebanon and that only regular troops were patrolling there. The Israeli military could not immediately confirm the report but said the plan was for all reservists to be out very soon.

The Lebanese decision seeks to defuse a threat to the UN cease-fire that went into effect Monday morning after 33 days of warfare between Hezbollah fighters and the Israeli military.

But at the world body's headquarters in New York, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni of Israel urged Secretary General Kofi Annan to ensure the complete disarmament of Hezbollah and prevent it from being rearmed by Iran and Syria.

This is a ``moment of truth" for the international community, she said. The world cannot ``allow Hezbollah to rise again and threaten the future of the region." Hezbollah had refused to disarm and withdraw its fighters as long as Israeli troops remain on Lebanese soil.

That stand risked undercutting the two-day-old cease-fire accord, since the Lebanese military declared it would deploy in the border hills only if Hezbollah fighters and weapons were pulled back. And without the Lebanese Army to join UN forces along the border, Israeli officials said they would not order the remaining Israeli soldiers to come back home.

Lebanese political leaders tried to overcome the standoff with a compromise, the contours of which remained indistinct.

The government said in a statement that only the army would be allowed to carry weapons in the area. ``There will be no authority or weapons besides those of the state," Information Minister Ghazi Aridi said in explaining the decision. But the declaration skipped over the question of whether Hezbollah's weapons, many of them hidden underground, had to be removed or destroyed. Aridi said there would be no confrontation with Hezbollah fighters, who in any case do not carry weapons except in battle and generally live in the border villages.

Hezbollah welcomed the army deployment, and its ministers voted with the Cabinet majority. But political sources involved in the decision said it did so on condition the army pledge not to look closely whether all of Hezbollah's armaments and missile stores were carried out.

The jockeying over postwar arrangements reflected Hezbollah's concern about the Israeli troops still manning hilltop observer posts inside Lebanon. But it also betrayed increased sectarian tensions within Lebanon's fractured leadership, according to a number of officials participating in sometimes angry discussions.

Hezbollah, widely seen here as a victor in the monthlong conflict, was reluctant to cede military control over south Lebanon to the army, which stood by as Hezbollah fighters waged war against Israel for a month. On the other side, some Lebanese politicians, particularly Maronite Christians, were eager to get started on disarming Hezbollah, not only in the border zone but also in the entire country. In a sign of the postwar balance of power, they did not prevail.

Hezbollah asserted itself politically as soon as the cease-fire began. Fighters put down their guns and turned into relief officials, and the militant Shi'ite Muslim movement immediately started handing out money for families to reconstruct destroyed homes. Prime Minister Fuad Siniora was outraged to see the government get outstripped in such a visible way, according to a political official who saw his display of anger.

Livni, the Israeli foreign minister, expressed concern that Hezbollah's intensified relief efforts could strengthen its political standing in Lebanon.

To find a long-term political settlement, the UN yesterday announced plans to send a high-level delegation to Lebanon and Israel today.