France commits 2,000 soldiers to U.N. force in Lebanon

PARIS -- President Jacques Chirac says France will send 2,000 soldiers for the U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, and a European Union official said it wants the troops in place within a week.\nIn a nationally televised address that was closely followed throughout Europe, Chirac said Thursday that France will increase its deployment from an already announced 400 troops and hopes to retain command of the force. He said the United Nations had provided guarantees France sought involving the mandate of the force.\n"Two extra battalions will go on to the ground to extend our numbers within UNIFIL," Chirac said. "Two thousand French soldiers are thus placed under blue helmets in Lebanon."\nThe White House cheered Chirac's announcement. "The president welcomes the decision by the French," said White House spokeswoman Dana Perino. "As he has said, an international force needs to be deployed urgently." President Bush is spending a long weekend in Kennebunkport, Maine, that will include the wedding of a cousin.\nFrance, along with the United States, helped craft a U.N. Security Council cease-fire resolution that allowed for expansion of the UNIFIL force from the current 2,000 troops to up to 15,000. France's commitment of troops to establish a buffer zone between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas has been closely watched in other countries.\nThe U.N. is expected to hold another formal meeting Monday for countries that have expressed interest in contributing troops to Lebanon, a U.N. official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because there has been no official announcement.\nThe United Nations hopes to nail down concrete numbers at that meeting so the deployment can begin quickly, the U.N. official said.\nSporadic violence has marked the U.N.-brokered cease-fire in Lebanon that took hold Aug. 14 and ended 34 days of ferocious fighting, but the truce has thus far held.\nEU foreign ministers are to meet Friday in Brussels to discuss the force. Pressure on the Europeans has grown because Israel rejected offers of participation from Malaysia, Bangladesh and Indonesia -- predominantly Muslim countries that do not recognize the Jewish state.