France, which could lead a new international peacekeeping force for Lebanon, said that such a force must be big, sufficiently well armed and have precise guidelines when it comes to opening fire.
The force must be bigger than the current UN Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) and be more than the 10,000 suggested by UN secretary general Kofi Annan, French defence minister Michèle Alliot-Marie said yesterday.
Military officials in France, which has emerged as a possible leader, have said the new Lebanon force should be 15,000-20,000 strong. "There is no question of it being a Unifil Mark Two," Ms Alliot-Marie told Le Monde.
"It must be a very large international force with very precise missions. It must be well armed, have substantial firepower and armour. It must be credible and capable of making itself respected by everyone."
She repeated the French view that the Lebanon force could only be deployed once a ceasefire had been established and a political accord reached between Hizbullah and Israel.
But a political accord seems far off and the UN on Monday postponed indefinitely a meeting called to begin planning for a Lebanon peacekeeping force. Israel does not want to stop its offensive before the force starts arriving - something France will not contemplate. Hizbullah has said it would not accept any solution it found humiliating, but did not elaborate.
Ms Alliot-Marie said the Lebanon force must not repeat the mistakes of previous UN-backed missions. She said it must have the right to open fire when necessary. "It's because they've been told that they don't have the right to open fire that all UN forces have had problems," she said.
Only countries with real military know-how should take part in the force, which should avoid becoming a kaleidoscope of nations that would lose its effectiveness, she said.
Military experts say France, which already has some 13,000 service personnel deployed abroad, could send about 5,000 troops to Lebanon, though Le Figaro said military planners felt the country was reaching its limit. "It won't be easy. We've reached our deployment limit now, not so much in terms of numbers of personnel, but in terms of command capacity," the newspaper quoted one officer as saying.