NAQURA, Lebanon - The number of UN peacekeepers in Lebanon has climbed to 5,000, meeting a condition set by Israel to withdraw from its northern neighbor, a UN spokesman said on Wednesday.

Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz confirmed the last soldiers would leave southern Lebanon by Friday, ending a two-month occupation launched during Israel’s offensive against Hezbollah guerrillas.

‘We have reached the 5,000 troops. The first phase of the UNIFIL deployment is now completed,’ said Alexander Ivanko, spokesman for the UN Interim Force in Lebanon, which aims to build up a contingent of 15,000 soldiers.

The pre-war number of about 2,000 UNIFIL troops, he told AFP, had now been boosted by three new battalions from France, Italy and Spain, although it would still take weeks for all the new land-based troops to be deployed in the south.

Troops from other countries, notably Indonesia, would follow in October and November, he said, warning that the operation was posing a ‘logistical nightmare’ for UNIFIL.

Israeli forces have remained in south Lebanon for more than a month after an August 14 ceasefire came into effect ending the deadly 34-day war between the Jewish state and Shia guerrillas of Hezbollah.

Israeli troops have gradually redeployed south of the volatile border as the French-led UNIFIL forces and the Lebanese army assume control in southern Lebanon -- the latter for the first time in four decades.

The French battalion in UNIFIL on Wednesday deployed another 10 Leclerc battle tanks in south Lebanon, completing its consignment of 13 of the tanks appearing for the first time in UN colours.

The high-tech Leclerc has been deployed abroad only once before, as part of French forces operating under NATO in Kosovo in 1999-2002.

The reinforced French battalion now numbers 900 soldiers, who landed at Beirut port last week. Their contribution to UNIFIL is to rise to a total of 2,000 men.

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