Malaysia would continue pressing the United Nations (UN) to immediately establish a ceasefire in Lebanon, said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. "The UN should do whatever it takes to ensure that a ceasefire is enforced in Lebanon soon. "We will continue to demand...we will increase the number of our allies to continue pressing the UN leaders to enforce a ceasefire in Lebanon immediately and the Israeli army taken out from there and replaced with UN troops," he said in his speech at the Sukpa indoor stadium in conjunction with his two-day visit to Pahang Thursday. Abdullah said Malaysia and its friends in the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) had a clear stand and would not sit still on Israeli encroachment of Lebanon. In line with this, he said Malaysia would send a battalion of 1,000 soldiers to join a multinational peacekeeping force under the UN banner to Lebanon once it secured an approval from the world body, Malaysian news agney "BERNAMA" reported. At the recent OIC special meeting in Kuala Lumpur recently, Malaysia and several OIC members made a resolution that Israel should withdraw immediately from Lebanon and a ceasefire be drawn up. Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei agreed to send their troops to Lebanon to be part of the UN peacekeeping mission.
