Lebanon ups pressure on militias

Lebanese forces have deployed near two bases in the Bekaa valley

Lebanese troops have increased pressure on pro-Syrian Palestinian armed groups operating near the Syrian border in the eastern Bekaa valley.

Shortly afterwards, the UN published a report on Lebanon's success in meeting UN demands to disarm militias based there and send its army in instead.

The report said Lebanon had not yet achieved "tangible results".

A Lebanese contractor working with the military was shot dead near the Syrian-Lebanese border on Tuesday.

The UN's special envoy on Syria-Lebanon, Terje Roed-Larsen, reported on the status of Security Council Resolution 1559.

The resolution, passed last year, called for Syria's withdrawal from Lebanon and for the dismantling of militias there.

In the report, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan told the UN Security Council that he had found "tangible results were yet to be achieved in these two fields".

He also reported that there had been "an increasing influx of weaponry and personnel from Syria to some of these groups".

"The government of Syria has informed me that the smuggling of arms and people across the Syrian-Lebanese border does indeed take place, albeit in both directions," Mr Annan said.

Crackdown

Earlier on Wednesday, the Lebanese army surrounded the base of a group it accused of such activities.

Terje Roed-Larsen said Lebanon had yet to disarm militias

Dozens of soldiers took up positions around the compound of the Syrian-backed Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC) in Sultan Yacoub.

Troops also set up checkpoints in the village that lies in the Bekaa valley, 5km (3 miles) from the Syrian border.

Lebanese officials have accused the group of smuggling weapons from Syria into Lebanon through a network of tunnels.

Soldiers demanded the group leave its heavily fortified base, but its members remained, witnesses say.

The PFLP-GC's commander in Lebanon, Anwar Raja, said he was surprised by the measures and hoped they were only temporary.

"We are not the group that should be receiving warnings," he told Lebanese LBC television.

Surveyor killed

Lebanese commandos and tanks also deployed along the Syrian border after a Lebanese civilian was shot by "armed men" from across the frontier on Tuesday.

Mohammed Ismail had been helping to survey the border in an area where it is not demarcated.

Security sources said the shots came from a position used by Fatah-Intifada, a Palestinian group based in the village of Hilwa on the Syrian side of the Bekaa valley.

The Damascus-based group has denied any involvement.