BEIRUT - Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, whose country is the leading contributor to the United Nations peacekeeping mission in south Lebanon, said Wednesday that Lebanese stability was key to stability in the Middle East.

Prodi, who arrived in Lebanon late Tuesday, held talks with Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Saniora on the peacekeeping operation. The force has been expanded after the 34-day conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.

"The stability of Lebanon is the instrument toward stability of the area," Prodi told reporters after talks with his Lebanese counterpart.

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Siniora expressed appreciation for what he called Italy's "strong participation" in the UN operation.

Italy is contributing 2,500 troops to the expanded peacekeeping force, assembled under the UN Security Council resolution that ended the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah on August 14.

About 1,000 Italian troops already have been deployed in the 30-kilometer area between the border with Israel and the Litani River to the north.

Italy is due to take over the command of the force from France in February 2007.

Prodi then flew to the Italian contingent's base at Tibnine, 15 kilometers north of the Israel border, where he was briefed by officers. He was to return to Beirut and and call on an Italian warship anchored there before departing for Italy in the evening.

Prodi also met the speaker of the Lebanese parliament, Nabih Berri, a political ally of Hezbollah, whose seizure of two Israel Defense Forces soldiers in July sparked the 34-day conflict.

Prodi said Italy is ready to mediate, if asked, for the release of the soldiers. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has appointed a secret envoy to negotiate the release of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, which is required under the UN cease-fire resolution.

Under the UN resolution, 15,000 Lebanese troops are to control southern Lebanon along with an equal number of UN peacekeepers. The UN force currently numbers 5,200. The aim is to maintain a weapons-free zone from the border to the Litani.

Berri: Hezbollah may restart war over Shaaba Farms
The speaker of Lebanon's parliament warned Israel on Wednesday that Hezbollah could restart hostilities if the Israel Defense Forces does not withdraw from the Shaaba Farms - a pocket of land claimed by Lebanon but viewed internationally as part of Syria.

Speaking in an interview to Britain's Guardian newspaper, Berri said that an IDF failure to withdraw from the Farms or other small areas of Lebanese territory would lead Hezbollah to resume military action along Lebanon's border with Israel.

"If Israel does not pull out we will have to drive them out," Berri told the newspaper.

The IDF completed its withdrawal from Lebanon last week, with the exception of the village of Ghajar, which straddles the border between the two countries.

Israel seized the mountainous Shaaba Farms from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War, along with the neighboring Golan Heights.

The area is now claimed by Beirut, with the consent of Damascus. The United Nations, however, says that any negotiations conducted over the area should be held between Israel and Syria.

Berri told the paper that the Iranian-backed Hezbollah will remain active in southern Lebanon, despite the deployment of thousands of United Nations peacekeepers, until Israel leaves all Lebanese territory and ends what he said were air, sea and land violations.

The sending of thousands more troops to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) was a key condition of the August 14 UN-brokered ceasefire that ended the 34-day conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.

"The UNIFIL presence will not hinder Hezbollah defensive operations. The resistance doesn't need to fly its flags high to operate. It's a guerrilla movement; it operates among the people," Berri said.

Berri also questioned the validity of UN force, saying that the foreign troops could be involved in gathering information that could reach Mossad.

"We don't want to interfere in their work, but we will be watching closely," he said. "We have to be careful, but we have a very effective intelligence service and we are used to watching for Israeli spies. They [the UN forces] are on our land, so that means they have to work in the interests of Lebanon, not Israel."

Berri also expressed concern that UN forces would stay indefinitely on Lebanese land, as there is no time frame for their deployment.

UN Resolution 1701 calls for "security arrangements to prevent the resumption of hostilities, including the establishment... of an area free of any armed personnel, assets and weapons other than those of the government of Lebanon and of UNIFIL."