no direct talks with Israel

Lebanon: No direct talks with Israel

Lebanese President Michel Sleiman has ruled out holding direct talks with Israel, calling for a regional peace conference instead.

"We have always refused to hold direct talks with the Israelis," Reuters quoted Sleiman as saying at the end of a three-day visit to France on Wednesday.

"We have always said that we would be prepared to accept a peace conference based on the Madrid conference and also on the international legal texts," said the president, referring to a 1991 peace conference in Madrid.

The president said he had asked the French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, to help resolve disputes with Israel such as obtaining a map of the land mines left by the Israeli military in the country during two wars.

After the 33-day war launched by Israel against Lebanon in the summer of 2006, Israel was obliged to provide Lebanon with the map of minefields.

Sleiman also demanded Israel's withdrawal from Sha'aba Farms occupied in the 1967 war. Israel has repeatedly declined to withdraw from the land under the pretext of ambiguity about its status.

SB/SME/RE