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

    BEIRUT, Oct. 13 (Xinhua) -- Lebanese Defense Minister Elias Murr has warned that the army would respond to any Israeli warplane that violates Lebanon's airspace with gunfire, the Naharnet news website reported Friday.

    "There are clear instructions from the army command to shoot at any Israeli warplane that violates the Lebanese airspace," Murr was quoted as saying on Thursday.

    "The United Nations is registering our daily complaints to these violations, and I hope they would soon end," he added.

    In the meantime, France has announced that the UN Security Council was working to settle the issue of the Lebanese airspace, which Israel continues to violate.

    French Defense Ministry spokesman Jean-Francois Bureau said on Thursday he believed that, in order to reinforce the Mideast peace process, "We have to move ahead with the issue of organizing the Lebanese airspace," Lebanese As Safir daily reported.

    The Lebanese army has increased its presence on the Lebanon-Syria border in the past weeks in accordance with a UN Security Council resolution that ended a 34-day Israel-Hezbollah conflict on Aug. 14. Enditem