Lebanese troops began deploying along the border on August 18, just days after a United Nations ceasefire went into effect. Some 10,000 Lebanese soldiers of a force planned to reach 15,000 have deployed in the south of the country.

About 300 soldiers deployed yesterday in the area south of the southern coastal town of Naqoura, known as Ras Naqoura, and in the village of Labbouneh, the officials said.

Both areas are about 100 meters north of the Blue Line demarcating the border between Lebanon and Israel.

Israeli troops withdrew from the area south of Naqoura on Friday, and yesterday, the Israeli military said it transferred the area to UN peacekeepers in south Lebanon. Israeli troops also withdrew from Meiss Al Jabal in the eastern sector of south Lebanon.

The US business group will be led by US Assistant Secretary of State Dina Powell and will include Intel chairman Craig Barrett, Cisco Systems chief executive John Chambers, Ghafari Inc chairman Yousif Ghafari and Ray Irani, chairman of Occidental Petroleum Corp.

The White House said the delegation will meet with Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and will visit areas hit by the bombing. The group is setting up a fund to seek private donations from Americans for the rebuilding.

President Vladimir Putin confirmed yesterday Russia intends to send troops to Lebanon, but not as part of the UN peacekeeping force there and only if all parties in the region agree.

Moscow is prepared to send "a small deployment of engineers to Lebanon," Putin said after a three-way summit with French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Angela Merkel north of Paris.

"We don't intend to do this within the UNIFIL (UN Interim Force in Lebanon) framework, but rather within a bilateral framework," he said.

In a move to make up for the damage to the infrastructure caused by the conflict, Turkey is going to provide electricity for Lebanon, the Anatolia news agency reported yesterday.

The Turkish energy authorities decided to supply for a year up to 1.4 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity to neighbouring Lebanon from a system established with Syria with whom Ankara already has an agreement, the agency said.

The decision will take effect "in the next few" days, Anatolia said.

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