Beirut - Syria will deploy more troops along its border with Lebanon in a move aimed at combating smuggling between the two countries, the Lebanese Army said Thursday.

Lebanese Army chief Jean Kahwaji and his Syrian counterpart Ali Habib discussed the deployment of Syrian Army units along the eastern border over the next few days, an Army statement said.

"This deployment comes in the framework of measures to stop smuggling and prevent the movement of people illegally across the borders," it said.

Cairo - Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Seniora denied on Thursday any Egyptian mediation to resume negotiations between Lebanon and Israel on the lines of Turkey's role in Syrian-Israeli talks.

Seniora, who was speaking at a joint press conference with Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa in Cairo, said that "no such thing is taking place."

New York - Lebanon and Syria have moved to fully implement a UN Security Council resolution to end decades of conflicts by establishing diplomatic ties, a UN special envoy in the Middle East said Thursday.

The council asked in 2004 that Syria end its interference, both military and political, in Lebanon's sovereignty and territorial integrity. Syria ended the military occupation in
2005 following the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

Beirut - Lebanese President Michel Suleiman is due to travel to Vatican City later this week for talks with Pope Benedict XVI, a presidential palace source said Tuesday.

Beirut - The head of Lebanon's anti-Syrian ruling majority, Saad Hariri, has met for the first time in two years with pro-Syrian Hezbollah chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, it was confirmed Monday.

The meeting, which took place Sunday night, was described by close sources to both leaders as "fruitful and essential to preserve national unity."

A statement issued by both parties Monday said: "There was an affirmation of national unity and civil peace and the need to take all measures to prevent tension ... and to reinforce dialogue and to avoid strife regardless of political differences."

Beirut - Lebanon's Prime Minister Fouad Seniora denounced Monday the US helicopter-borne commando raid in Syria which allegedly targeted the al-Qaeda-linked insurgents streaming into Iraq.

According to Syria, eight people, including a married couple and their four children were killed in the raid on a building in the village of Al-Sukkariya, some eight kilometres from the country's border with Iraq.

"The raid by US helicopters on Syrian territory ... constitutes a violation of Syrian sovereignty and thus is a dangerous, unacceptable attack that we condemn," a statement from Seniora's office said.