Jerusalem - The issue of an Israeli withdrawal from the northern part of the divided Lebanese village of Ghajjar was "close to a solution," Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said Thursday.

Speaking after meeting UN peacekeeping operations head Alain Le Roy in Jerusalem, Ayalon said Israel will give a definite answer on the withdrawal before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets President Barack Obama on May 18.

Le Roy said an Israeli withdrawal from the village was "esential" to the stability of the region.

Two-thirds of Ghajjar is located on Lebanon, and one third on the Golan Heights, which Israel captured form Syria in the 1967 Middle East War.

Following Israel's pullout from its self-declared "security zone" in south Lebanon in 2000, the United Nations drew the border though the village.

However, Israel re-entered the northern part of the village during its 2006 war with Lebanon, and although it promised to withdraw as part of the ceasefire ending the 33-day conflict, the pullout never took place.

Prior to the 2006 war, Ghajjar served as a focal point for the ongoing tensions between Iranian-backed Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas and Israel.

But according to media reports, Israel is now mulling a withdrawal from Ghajjar in order to boost moderate Lebanese forces ahead of that country's elections in June.

According to a Lebanese government source, the Italian contingent working with the United Nations interim force in southern Lebanon (UNIFIL) might take control of Ghajjar once Israel withdraws from the village. (dpa)