PARIS - France is willing to deploy troops in southern Lebanon if it will help end Israel's war on Hizbullah guerrillas, President "Jacques Chirac told a cabinet meeting.
"If it turns out to be necessary for political or technical reasons," Mr Chirac said, Lebanese troops can benefit by "a reinforcement of UN peace keepers or by national contingents, and France is willing to take part."
Mr Chirac earlier reviewed France's initiatives during the Israel Lebanon crisis, a government spokesman said. France has been proposing "first a ceasefire as soon as possible, then the return to a process comparable to that of the accords signed in 1993", Mr Chirac said.
Later France envisages "a more durable accord" which would see militias disarmed, application of UN Resolution 425 on the withdrawal of Israeli troops from south Lebanon, and the posting of Lebanese soldiers along the border.