UN to consider peacekeepers for Middle East at Rome meeting

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called an international conference for Wednesday that is expected to formulate plans for a ceasefire in the Middle East crisis as well as a possible deployment of foreign troops, a top U.N. official said. Terje Roed-Larsen, in charge of monitoring Syria-Lebanon issues, said in an interview on Friday that the conference, to be held in Rome, was intended to work out concepts that could stem the violence in Lebanon and Israel. "The broad consensus now in the international community is that in order to produce a ceasefire you need the political unpinnings," Roed-Larsen told Reuters Television. The so-called core group of advisors on Lebanon were organized last year for economic reconstruction. They include Russia, Italy, Britain, France, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the World Bank, the United Nations as well as the United States. More nations are expected to be added. No one knows yet what a stabilization force should do, whether it should disarm Lebanon's Hizbollah militia or go in only after Israel has ended its assault and beef up a U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon. "On the drawing board in Rome there will be discussions on how such a force should be organized," Roed-Larsen said. "Should one recognize the existing (U.N.) force on the ground, or should it be replaced by a new international presence?"