Cartographers from Israel and the United Nations have begun consultations aimed at establishing where the international border runs between Israel and Lebanon, ahead of Israel's imminent withdrawal from the strip of southern Lebanon it has occupied for the past two decades.
As preparations for the pullback gather pace - the Israeli army is fortifying its positions along Israel's northern front, and plans are being drawn up for a new state-of-the-art electronic border fence - the UN Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, is gearing up to convene the Security Council, probably in the next two weeks, to decide on steps to help maintain tranquillity on the border.
Israel's Prime Minister, Mr Ehud Barak, has assured the UN that Israel intends to withdraw its troops to the international border as designated in 1923 once the precise demarcations of that border can be established from somewhat imprecise maps and that, contrary to some earlier suggestions, it will not seek to maintain any military positions inside southern Lebanon.
Mr Barak told his cabinet colleagues yesterday that a complete pull-out would deny Hizbullah and Palestinian militant groups any pretext for attacking northern Israel and any international sympathy should they do so.
Hizbullah officials have sent mixed signals as to how they might react to the withdrawal, which Mr Barak has pledged to complete by July 7th, but which may go ahead before then.
Some Israeli military officials have warned that cross-border violence is almost inevitable, and that there is a real risk of conflict worsening into all-out war. Mr Matan Vilnai, a retired general who is now Israel's science minister, appeared to play down this threat yesterday.
As one means of boosting border security, Israel is asking that UNIFIL be expanded from 4,000 to 7,000 troops. Mr Annan's special envoy, Mr Terje Larson, told the Israelis last week that full co-operation with the UN would depend on Israel pulling back all the way to the border, and either removing or marking its minefields.
Mr Barak still holds out faint hopes that withdrawal can take place within the wider context of peace talks with Syria and Lebanon. But Syria has given no concrete indication of a readiness to return to the negotiating table. And the health of Syria's President Hafez al-Assad, reported variously to be suffering from senile dementia or to have recently had a stroke, hardly augurs well for a breakthrough.
Mr Barak is also facing opposition to plans for progress on the Palestinian track, where talk of handing the Palestinian Authority full control of areas immediately adjacent to Jerusalem - including the village of Abu Dis, where the Palestinians have erected a parliament building - has prompted one coalition partner, the National Religious Party, to threaten to defect to the opposition.
The Palestinians are no happier with Mr Barak's strategy, which they see from the opposite point of view. Israeli and Palestinian negotiators yesterday started a new round of key peace talks later than planned, because of Palestinian protests over Israeli plans to expand another settlement.