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Aug 25, 2006 7:43 am US/Eastern
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Chirac: Lebanon Does Not Need 15,000 Troops
French President Calls U.N. Peacekeeping Force's Expansion 'Excessive'
PARIS (AP) ―
French President Jacques Chirac said Friday that he does not believe the expanded U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon needs 15,000 troops, and he called that figure "excessive."
A U.N. resolution calls for the force in southern Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, to expand from 2,000 troops to 15,000.
Chirac, who has pledged a total of 2,000 French troops, said the territory in question was too small to require that many
peacekeepers.
"My feeling is that the figure that was put forward at the beginning of discussions -- 15,000 for a reinforced UNIFIL -- was a figure that was quite excessive," he said.
Chirac's comments came as foreign ministers from the European Union gathered in Brussels for an emergency meeting on committing troops to Lebanon.
Most of the bloc's 25 members have been reluctant to take part in the peacekeeping effort because of uncertainty about the conditions under which troops would be authorized to use force.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who was scheduled to attend Friday's meeting, hoped to persuade the ministers to dispatch the additional blue helmets.
Chirac promised late Thursday to increase France's deployment to 2,000 from an already announced 400 troops, and offered to continue leading the force.
(© 2006 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)