Beirut - Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini held talks Tuesday with Lebanese officials and will visit his country's contingent in south Lebanon.

Frattini, who is on a two-day visit to Lebanon, met with his Lebanese counterpart Fawzi Salkouh and Lebanese President Michel Suleiman.

After his talks with Salkouh, Frattini said his country backed the Lebanon's parliamentary elections due to be held on June 7.

"Italy backs a stable Lebanon and the elections that should be held freely and democratically," Frattini told reporters.

Beirut - Leban

Beirut  - Lebanese police arrested the gang that kidnapped a
14-year-old outside his home in Beirut, Interior Minister Ziad Baroud
said Thursday.

Baroud told journalists that security forces raided a house in the area
Aley, 30 kilometres east of Beirut, and found Amin Khansa with one of
the kidnappers.

Police identified the kidnappers as Abdel Nasser Hassan al-Moqdad,
Khaled Assaad Shaikho, Ahmad Ali al-Ahmad and Ibrahim Ali al-Ahmad.
They were captured and transferred to the Police Directorate General
for questioning.

Beirut  - A 14-year-old Lebanese student has been kidnapped in Beirut with his captors demanding ransom of 1.5 million dollars, local television networks reported Tuesday.

Amin Jihad al-Khansa was abducted when he was waiting his school bus in the morning outside his house near the Beirut International airport highway district.

Reports said Khansa's parents were not aware of the kidnapping until they received a call from an anonymous man, demanding the ransom.

Beirut  - Lebanese President Michel Suleiman said Monday that Arabs should "unite in the face of terrorism" and proposed an Arab observatory to combat terrorism through constant monitoring of suspicious activities and financial transactions.

He said that the conference of Arab interior ministers Sunday in Beirut "was an indication of Arab trust in Lebanon."