MIDDLE EAST: UN URGES EU NATIONS TO 'FIRM UP' LEBANON TROOP COMMITMENTS

"Beirut, 18 August (AKI) - The United Nations's deputy secretary general Mark Malloch Brown on Friday called on European Union countries to urgently deploy a vanguard of 3,500 troops to war-scarred southern Lebanon to boost the UN interim force (UNIFIL) within ten days. 'I am appealing to the Europeans to firm up their commitments,' he said." More.