Beirut  - Lebanese Defense Minister Elias Murr said Monday material confiscated from a garbage truck near a UNIFIL post in the southern town is a "non-explosive material."

"After examining the material which were disovered in a carbage truck trying to enter a UNIFIL base in southern Lebanon the tests showed they contain no explosive material," Murr said as he entered a cabinet session.

He added the Lebanese security forces have released the suspects arrested in connection with the incident.

On Sunday, the Italian contingent in the United Nations Interim Forces in Southern Lebanon (UNIFIL) arrested two people disguised as cleaners trying to smuggle "plastic material that could be explosives" into a UN base in southern Lebanon, a UN statement said.

The suspicious plastic was found in a garbage truck during a routine search at the entrance of the Italian battalion's headquarter in the village of Tebnine, southern Lebanon.

Italy has 2,500 troops in southern Lebanon, the largest contingent working within UNIFIL.

The peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon grew from around 2,300 to 15,000, in accordance with a UN Security Council resolution in August 2006 that halted 33 days of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.

Since December 2008, UNIFIL has taken extra precautionary measures after receiving threats from fundamentalist groups with close links to al-Qaeda terrorist network.

On June 25, 2007, six UN peacekeepers from the Spanish battalion were killed and two others injured in a car bombing that targeted their patrol in southern Lebanon. (dpa)