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.

Beirut - The Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers on Friday discovered an old cache of rockets near the border with Israel, Lebanese security sources said.

The incident came a day after at least three Katyuhsa rockets were fired into northern Israel.

The cache consisted of 34 rockets and some boxes of ammunition placed in two old bunkers and covered by camouflage nets.

According to the sources, the cache seemed to date from 2006, when Hezbollah and Israel fought 33 days of fierce battles in southern Lebanon.

Beirut - Lebanon has informed Damascus of its readiness to begin demarcating the border between the two countries, local radio broadcasters reported Tuesday.

Border demarcation was one of the demands of United Nations Security Council resolutions, which ended a 33-day war between Israel and Hizbullah in the summer of
2006.

Additionally, UN officials say demarcation is necessary to combat cross-border smuggling.

"The Voice of Lebanon" radio station said that intensive global efforts would be launched "to pressure Syria into facilitating border demarcation with Lebanon."

Beirut  - Followers of the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah and others from Hamas gathered Saturday in Beirut's southern suburbs, a hotbed of Hezbollah, to show support for the people of Gaza after Israel launched a massive attack on the strip.

"The people of Gaza are not alone... the coming days will show you this," said Hezbollah politburo member Sheikh Hashem Safieddine.

He criticized Arab leaders and called on them to take urgent steps against Israel's attack on Gaza. He also urged Arab people to pressure their leaders.

Beirut  - A German military delegation was to visit Beirut next month to complete the discussions with President Michel Suleiman to grant Lebanon military assistance, a Lebanese news agency reported Wednesday.

Al Markaziyeh news agency, citing an informed Lebanese source, said the German delegation would discuss with their Lebanese counterparts German military assistance to the Lebanese Army aimed at enhancing the latter's military capabilities.

The source said that Germany had decided to grant Lebanon 50 Leopard tanks and other equipment to enhance monitoring the borders with Syria.

On December 18, Russia also announced that it will give Lebanon 10 MiG fighter jets in a deal to boost defence cooperation.

Beirut  - A cargo ship carrying Lebanese activists and supplies will set sail on January 3 for the besieged Gaza Strip in an attempt to break an Israeli blockade, organizers said Tuesday.

The European-flagged ship will carry power generators and food to Gaza. It will sail from southern Lebanon to the eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus before heading to Gaza, one of the organizers, Hani Suleiman, a lawyer and professor, said.

The passengers include activists from civil society groups as well as journalists, Suleiman said.