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 -  French President Nicolas Sarkozy, due to arrive in Beirut on Tuesday, promised to exert more effort to resolve lingering issues between Lebanon and neighbouring Syria.

"Lebanon and Syria are now cooperating to restore relations based on trust and mutual respect," Sarkozy was quoted by Lebanese televisions on Monday.

"I am not naive and I realize that there are still several stages that need to be crossed," he said.

Beirut - Lebanon announced Monday that upcoming parliamentary elections will be held on June 7, 2009 throughout all the country's constituencies.

Another decree is to be issued at a later date setting the schedule for presenting nomination documents, the Lebanese Interior Ministry said.

Holding elections in all constituencies on the same day was a demand by the anti-Syrian ruling majority.

Lebanon last held parliamentary elections in May 2005, when the anti-Syrian ruling majority swept the votes.

Beirut - Demonstrators clashed Sunday with Lebanese security forces as they attempted to advance to the US embassy near Beirut, while protesting the ground assault on Gaza and the US stand on Israel's military actions.

Around 150 people belonging to the Lebanese Communist Party gathered outside the embassy building north east of the capital and attempted to cross the barbed wire that has placed around the embassy.

Beirut  - The Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah called late Saturday on Hamas to "defeat Israel and kill as many Israeli soldiers as they can."

"Hamas will defeat Israel in ground attack," Hezbollah chief told his followers in Beirut's southern suburbs during the Shiite religious ceremony of Ashoura.

Nasrallah urged Hamas to inflict heavy losses on the Israeli soldiers who launched a ground operation in the Gaza Strip after eight days of attacks by air and sea on the region.

"It is by inflicting the biggest possible losses on the Israeli enemy during the ground confrontation that (Hamas) will win the battle," Nasrallah told an Ashoura gathering.

Beirut  - Thousands of protesters from various Palestinian and Lebanese groups demonstrated Friday in front the Egyptian Embassy in the capital Beirut to protest what they described as "the Arab stand" towards the Gaza attack.

"Where are the Arabs? What is this silence?", read one of the placards carried by the protesters.

The crowd carried coffins wrapped in black and Palestinian flags while they moved through the streets from the United Nations headquarters towards the Egyptian embassy.

The demonstrators staged a sit-in in front of the UN headquarters in downtown Beirut.