UNITED NATIONS, May 17 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations Security Council urged Syria and Lebanon on Wednesday to establish formal diplomatic relations, demarcate their common border and called on Syria to take measures against movements of arms into Lebanon.

    The 15-nation council issued the calls in a resolution passed by 13 votes in favor with abstentions from China and Russia. The measure "strongly encouraged" Syria to respond positively to Lebanese requests to delineate their common border and establish full diplomatic relations.

    "Such measures would constitute a significant step toward asserting Lebanon's sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence and improving the relations between the twocountries, thus contributing positively to the stability in the region," the resolution said.

    The resolution noted with regret that the disbanding and disarming of all militias on the Lebanese territory had still not been achieved as required by the council's earlier Resolution 1559and voiced concern that there had been arms flows into Lebanon formilitias over the last six months.

    Resolution 1559 was adopted in September 2004 amid concerns over the controversial three-year extension of Lebanese President Emile Lahoud's term. One of the main provisions of that resolutionwas attained last year with the withdrawal of Syrian troops from its smaller neighbor, where they had been stationed since the Lebanese civil war that began in 1975.

    In its new resolution, the council welcomed the Lebanese national dialogue. But it regretted that other provisions of Resolution 1559 had not yet been fully implemented, including militia disbandment, extension of government control over all Lebanon, strict respect of the country's sovereignty, territorial integrity, unity and political independence, and free and fair presidential elections.

    It lauded a decision from the Lebanese national dialogue to disarm Palestinian militias outside refugee camps within six months and called for further efforts to disband and disarm all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias.

    Addressing the council after the vote, Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said that helping to strengthen Lebanon's sovereignty, its unity and territorial integrity must be done by dialogue between Damascus and Beirut.

    Churkin said that the text adopted was a departure from established norms and did not help a constructive settlement of the pending issues between Syria and Lebanon. Therefore, he added,he had not seen a particular need at this stage for any further substantive reaction on the council's part.

    Although voting in favor of the resolution, Argentine Ambassador Cesar Mayoral made it clear that establishment of diplomatic relations and delimitation of borders should be done bythe countries involved without external interference and the council should not become involved in matters solely of a bilateral nature.

    He stressed that the resolution should not "set a precedent to be invoked in the future." Enditem