Lebanese PM urges UN action over Israeli flights

Prime Minister Fuad Siniora has appealed to United Nations chief Kofi Annan to put pressure on Israel to stop its warplanes from overflying Lebanon and withdraw from a village, his office says.

Mr Siniora made the request during a telephone conversation with Mr Annan late on Friday, saying the overflights violated UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the month-long Israel-Hezbollah war on August 14.

The Lebanese premier also underlined the need to put an end "to the violations by Israel of the Blue Line (UN-demarcated border), particularly its occupation of the village of Ghajar," his office says.

Israeli aircraft have continued to overfly Lebanon since the Jewish state withdrew its forces earlier this week from all of southern Lebanon barring Ghajar village.

Ghajar, which straddles the border between Lebanon and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, has been wholly occupied by Israeli forces since the end of its offensive against the Shiite militant group Hezbollah.

The village's residents are Alawites and on the Golan side have Israeli citizenship as that part of village was unilaterally annexed by Israel in 1981 along with the rest of the Syrian territory.

Israel has said it will continue to overfly Lebanon until the release of two of its soldiers who were captured by Hezbollah on July 12, sparking the Israeli offensive.

On Friday, Israeli warplanes flew at a low altitude over the Bekaa Valley and the town of Baalbek, a Hezbollah stronghold in eastern Lebanon.

- AFP