PARIS, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- French President Jacques Chirac has given a positive response "in principle" to the request of the United Nations and Lebanon to take part in monitoring the Lebanese coast, Chirac's office said Tuesday.

    Chirac "gave a response that was in principle positive" to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan at a telephonic conversation on Monday night, his office said.

    But France wants that the functioning rules of the operation be precisely defined and hopes to rapidly concretize an accord with the United Nations, it added.

    A little earlier the French Foreign Ministry announced that Lebanon had officially asked France to monitor the Lebanese coastline in order to enforce the arms embargo on the Lebanese militia Hezbollah.

    The embargo was stipulated in the UN resolution 1701, which marked the end to the one-month Israeli-Hezbollah conflict on Aug.14.

    France has 1,700 troops boarding several ships off the Lebanese coastline and has mobilized a total of 2,000 troops to provide logistical support to the UN Interim Force in Lebanon.

    Mattei noted that the monitoring mission would be a "temporary one" in the expectation that other countries would take over.

    Annan, who is on a visit in Egypt, said at a joint news conference with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit that Israel's blockade of Lebanon were expected to be lifted within 48 hours, while Israel said the lifting of blockade would depend on the implementation of arm embargo on the Hezbollah. Enditem