Special reports: Israel-Lebanon Conflicts [Video] [Gallery]    

French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin (R) meets Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni (L) at the Hotel Matignon in Paris August 23, 2006. French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said that Israel must end its sea and air blockade of Lebanon, but that UN forces should at the same time enforce a strict embargo on arms. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo) Photo Gallery >>>

    PARIS, Aug. 23 (Xinhua) -- Visiting Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on Wednesday called upon the UN peacekeeping force to act "extremely quickly" in Lebanon.

    "Time works against those who want to see the implementation of UN Resolution 1701, which ended hostilities between Israel and Lebanon's Shiite militia group Hezbollah," Livni said in Hebrew at a joint news conference with her French counterpart Philippe Douste-Blazy.

    "We are now in the most sensitive and most explosive situation" since the arms embargo was not complete, she said.

    "That's why extremely rapid action [on the part] of the international community is needed," she said, adding that "the international community's force must be there to help the Lebanese government and army to regain control of its territory."

    "The final goal is to see a Lebanon that is free and free of militias ... all 'extremists' eyes are focused on the region now to see what will be the outcome of the conflict," she said.

    UN Resolution 1701, which was unanimously adopted on Aug. 11 by the Security Council, gives a mandate for the UN force in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, to increase its troops from the current level of 2,000 to 15,000.

    France has promised to offer an extra 200 troops to the reinforced deployment.

    Douste-Blazy said he and his Israeli counterpart both agreed that reinforcements to the UN force in Lebanon had to be sent "with a clearly defined mandate," and both of them wanted "a full and complete application of UN Resolution 1701 by all the parties, including Hezbollah."

    Before meeting with Livni, Douste-Blazy said during an interview with France's public television France 2 that he would ask the UNIFIL to enforce an embargo on arms across all Lebanese borders and ask Israel to lift its sea and air blockade of Lebanon.

    During her visit, Livni will also meet French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin and Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy. Enditem