Israel approves completion of Lebanon pullout

[oberliner]

JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israel has authorized UN troops to deploy in the Lebanese part of the divided border village of Ghajar, completing its pullout from Lebanon following the war with Hezbollah.

The influential security cabinet "adopted an... agreement on the status of Ghajar under which UNIFIL forces control the northern part of the village and Israel controls the southern part," a senior government official told AFP on Sunday.

Israeli troops had remained in northern Ghajar, a village that straddles the border between the two countries, after all other Israeli forces pulled out of Lebanon on October 1 following this summer's 34-day war with Hezbollah.

Ghajar has been divided between Israel and Lebanon since May 2000, when the Jewish state withdrew from its northern neighbor -- an arrangement not recognized by Beirut.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061203/wl_mideast_afp/mideastconflictlebanon_061203155431