Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero held talks Saturday with Prime Minister Fuad Saniora on Lebanon's deepening political crisis, which has produced a vacuum in the presidency, according to AP. Zapatero, who arrived here earlier Saturday on a previously unannounced visit, also traveled to southern Lebanon where he inspected his country's troops serving with the U.N. peacekeeping force overseeing a truce along the Lebanese-Israeli border. During the 45-minute meeting at Beirut airport, Saniora briefed Zapatero on «the situation in Lebanon and the continued vacuum in the presidency post,» the state-run National News Agency reported. Zapatero, accompanied by Defense Minister Jose Antonio Alonso, later flew by a U.N. helicopter to the southern town of Marjayoun near the border with Israel. He inspected 1,100 Spanish troops serving with the U.N. peacekeeping force, known as UNIFIL, which is increasingly threatened by al-Qaida-inspired militants and political instability in Beirut.
