HELSINKI (AFX) - European Union members will meet this week in Brussels, probably on Wednesday, to discuss their contributions to a UN force in Lebanon, the EU's Finnish presidency said.
'We are planning to have a meeting in Brussels on this issue,' Pilvi-Sisko Vierros-Villeneuve, political director at the Finnish foreign ministry, told Agence France-Presse.
'We already had a meeting last week in Brussels, and it's normal to have a follow-up meeting next week,' she added.
The meeting would take place between members of the EU's Political and Security Committee comprising political directors of foreign ministries of member states, she said.
French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said earlier that he had asked his Finnish counterpart, Erkki Tuomioja, for a meeting of EU countries to 'clarify' their troop contributions to the reinforced UNIFIL (UN Interim Force in Lebanon).
The talks would 'probably' take place on Wednesday, Vierros-Villeneuve said, adding that France had not been the only country to call for such a meeting.
'We had a meeting last week and it was the first exchange of information about what the European countries are going to do and how they are going to contribute to the UNIFIL forces, and so it was understood that we have another meeting,' she said.
The expanded UNIFIL, agreed under UN resolution 1701 just over a week ago, authorises a UN force of up to 15,000 troops in Lebanon to support the Lebanese army and to police a ceasefire between Hezbollah and the Israeli military.
Paris, which has come under criticism for sending just 200 soldiers to the expanded UN deployment so far, urged its partners to show 'European solidarity'. newsdesk@afxnews.com afp/jlw COPYRIGHT Copyright AFX News Limited 2005. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of AFX News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of AFX News. AFX News and AFX Financial News Logo are registered trademarks of AFX News Limited