Lebanon PM Warns Army Will Seize Weapons

A Spanish UNIFIL soldier, right, stands guards with a M60 machine gun next to Lebanese soldiers, left, at the beach in the southern Lebanese city of Tyre, Thursday, Sept. 14, 2006. Around 570 Spanish soldiers should be landing Friday in Tyre. Spain's contribution to the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) is the third largest by a European Union state. (AP Photo/Francois Mori) (Francois Mori - AP)

Regev instead alleged continued violations on the Lebanese side, in particular the failure to release two Israeli soldiers whose capture by Hezbollah on July 12 sparked the war. The U.N. cease-fire called for their unconditional release, and the world body is to send an envoy next week to broker indirect talks between the two sides.

The U.N. has asked Israel to pull down a barbed-wire fence Lebanon claims encroaches on its territory and said it would file a complaint with Israel's military about its jets flying in Lebanese airspace.

The Lebanese army said Israel carried out 12 overflights Thursday. Similar incidents have occurred regularly in violation of the cease-fire, which went into effect Aug. 14.

Still, U.N. officials expressed optimism.

"The good news is that the cessation of hostilities is holding up very well," said Alexander Ivanko, spokesman of the UNIFIL peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon. "The situation is still tense, but it is stable."

Israel's army, which at its peak had 30,000 soldiers across the border up to 18 miles into Lebanon, has largely pulled back to a band 2 to 3 miles deep, Ivanko said.

Maj. Gen. Alain Pellegrini, commander of the U.N. peacekeepers, said he expected the Israeli withdrawal to be completed by the end of the month.

The 34-day war killed more than 850 Lebanese, mostly civilians, and almost 160 Israelis.

Along with targeting Lebanese infrastructure, Israeli warplanes and artillery pounded Hezbollah strongholds south of Beirut and in eastern and southern Lebanon in an attempt to destroy the group's rocket arsenal. Hezbollah fired more than 4,000 rockets at northern Israel.

On Thursday, Amnesty International accused Hezbollah of breaking international humanitarian law by targeting Israeli towns. It previously issued a similar condemnation of Israel's offensive.

The human rights group has called for a U.N. inquiry into possible war crimes committed by both sides, but Thursday's report focused on the actions of Hezbollah.

Hezbollah rejected Amnesty's charges. Hezbollah legislator Hassan Fadlallah acknowledged his group targeted civilians in Israel, but said it was in response to Israeli attacks that killed Lebanese civilians.

"We do not deny that we have bombarded Israeli cities, settlements and infrastructure. But this was always a reaction," he said in an interview by telephone with Al-Jazeera.

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Associated Press writers Jamey Keaten in south Lebanon and Nadia Abou el-Magd in Cairo, Egypt, contributed to this report.