European Union foreign ministers are to gather Friday in Brussels for a special talks session to discuss the participation of EU troops in the international force being assembled for Lebanon, it was announced Tuesday. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan is also expected to attend the meeting, officials from the current Finnish EU presidency said according to dpa. Italy had earlier called for an urgent meeting of EU foreign ministers as it declared its readiness to lead the United Nations peacekeeping force to the country, but said "a precise mandate" was needed from the international organization. "We need more clarity, a precise mandate, precise contents and a very clear definition of the alliances," Prime Minister Romano Prodi was quoted by Italian media as saying. Europe would probably be sending up to 9,000 soldiers to strengthen the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema said. The UN was scheduled to discuss the expansion of UNIFIL on Wednesday, with EU diplomats planning to discuss the issue the same day in Brussels. Annan was expected to decide who would lead the troops at the weekend, Prodi said. "Then we will see in the framework of the joint global strategy what special role Italy can take on," he said. D'Alema said that Italy would be sending between 2,000 and 3,000 troops as part of the EU mission, or "a third of the total number of European soldiers," D'Alema was quoted as saying in La Repubblica newspaper. Fears that Italy could be left alone in its contribution to the forces in southern Lebanon were unfounded, the minister added.
