French President Jacques Chirac told Israel on Wednesday it should stop flying warplanes over Lebanon in what Israel says is an effort to gather intelligence on Hezbollah arms smuggling.

France and Israel failed to patch up differences the flights, which French forces call menacing and Israel insists are needed for security.

French peacekeepers say they came within seconds of shooting down Israeli F-15 fighters that nose-dived repeatedly over their positions in south Lebanon on Oct. 31. The incident incensed the French military.

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Chirac "repeated France's position on the overflights" at a meeting in his Elysee Palace with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, his spokesman Jerome Bonnafont said.

Livni, who met with top French officials Wednesday in Paris, defended the flights as a needed security precaution to watch movements of missiles like those fired by Hezbollah militia on Israel during the recent war in Lebanon.

"The only reason for these flights is to get information," said Livni at a news conference alongside French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy. Livni said Lebanon's border with Syria, seen as a transit route for weapons to Hezbollah, remained open.

President Jacques Chirac also hosted Livni, discussing Israeli-Palestinian relations, concern about Iran's nuclear ambitions and his hopes for a "change of behavior" from Israeli neighbor Syria, according to Jerome Bonnafont, a Chirac spokesman. Bonnafont did not specify what Chirac was seeking from Damascus.

UN Security Council resolution 1701 paved the way for a cease-fire to end the war on Aug. 14, urging respect of Lebanon's borders and a Lebanese effort to prevent the smuggling of weapons from Syria.

"It's an important achievement we have to consolidate ... and ensure the
respect of the embargo and - at the same time - a halt to the overflights," Douste-Blazy said.

Chirac wants the resolution to be fully applied, and pressed for a "quick
solution" for Shaaba Farms, Bonnafont said. Shaaba Farms is a plot of land along Lebanon's border with Israel and Syria that Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war. Lebanon wants to regain control.

French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie has called Israel's overflights of Lebanon "extremely dangerous," saying peacekeepers could see them as hostile and fire in self-defense.

There are about 1,600 French peacekeepers in south Lebanon, part of a
10,000-strong force from about 20 countries that seeks to maintain south
Lebanon as a weapons-free zone. Along with the Lebanese army, the force is intended to keep Hezbollah guerrillas away from the Israeli border.