(AP) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan visited U.N. peacekeepers in south Lebanon on Tuesday, a day after Italy and Turkey moved to join the international force there.
Annan and his entourage left Beirut Tuesday morning in two white United Nations helicopters, and landed in Naqoura, a town on the Mediterranean coast about 2.5 miles north of the Israeli border, and home to headquarters of the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, reports Trend.
The U.N. chief was in Lebanon on the first leg of an 11-day Mideast tour that would take him to Israel, as well as to Syria and Iran Hezbollah's main benefactors.
Annan was briefed Tuesday by French Maj. Gen. Alain Pellegrini, the UNIFIL commander, and other top officials, UNIFIL spokesman Alexander Ivanko said. He was to attend a ceremony for slain peacekeepers and also visit other UNIFIL posts throughout the south by helicopter, possibly landing at Khiam, a Shiite town where four U.N. peacekeepers were killed in an Israeli airstrike on July 25, Ivanko said.
On Monday, Annan pressed Hezbollah to release two Israeli soldiers, whose July 12 capture started the 34-day Israel-Hezbollah war, and called on Israel to lift its sea and air blockade of Lebanon.
After talks with Lebanese leaders in Beirut, the U.N. chief faulted both Israel and Hezbollah for not living up to key sections of the cease-fire resolution, and warned that fighting could resume if the parties did not abide by the full resolution.
"Without the full implementation of resolution 1701, I fear the risk is great for renewal of hostilities," he said.
He also toured a bombed-out neighborhood in the Hezbollah stronghold of south Beirut, where hundreds of residents booed him as he toured the ruins.
Meanwhile, an Italian fleet gathered off southern Italy on Tuesday to carry troops and aircraft to south Lebanon.
Three landing platform dock ships also were departing the port of Brindisi, and a small frigate already in Cyprus was scheduled to join the Italian mission, the Defense Ministry said.
Italy on Monday approved sending 2,500 troops, the largest national contingent so far. The plan now goes to Parliament for approval, but the ships were to sail ahead of the vote and reach the coast of Lebanon on Friday.
The peacekeeping force was to grow to 15,000, according to the Aug. 11 U.N. cease-fire resolution that halted fighting between Israel and Hezbollah three days later.
On Monday, Turkey's Cabinet decided in favor of sending peacekeepers and its parliament was to convene to debate the deployment later this week or early next week, said Turkish government spokesman Cemil Cicek.
"In principle, we've decided to join the U.N. peacekeeping mission," Cicek said. "The issue was debated in detail, considering our country's national interests."
Cicek said the size and composition of the force would be determined by the military. Opposition to sending peacekeepers has been mounting in Turkey.
Turkey ruled Lebanon for some 400 years during the Ottoman Empire and many Turkish officials want their country to have a say in an area that they regard as their country's backyard.
The United States, the European Union and Israel were pressing Turkey, the only Muslim member of NATO and a country with close ties to Israel and Arab countries, to send peacekeepers.