Lebanese, Israeli and UN officers met on the border to discuss the Israeli withdrawal from south Lebanon and the Lebanese army deployment in the area, a UN spokesman said on Monday.

The commander of the UN force in Lebanon held meeting with military officers from Lebanon and Israel to discuss the issues hours after a UN-brokered ceasefire took effect, UN spokesman Milos Strugar said in a statement.

"UNIFIL Commander General Alain Pellegrini has met with the senior representatives of the Lebanese army and Israeli army at noon today (0900 GMT)," the UN spokesman said.

The officers discussed the withdrawal of the Israeli army and the deployment of the Lebanese armed forces in southern Lebanon at the meeting, Strugar said.

They also discussed implementation and compliance with the truce, Strugar added.

The UN Security Council Resolution 1701, calling for Israel's withdrawal and authorizing an increase of the existing UN force in Lebanon to 15,000 troops to help Lebanese government troops take control of south Lebanon as Israel withdraws, went into effect at 8:00 a.m. (0500 GMT) on Monday.

Reports reaching here from southern Lebanon said guns fall silent in the area as the cease-fire entered into force.

The Israeli army said that part of its troops began to evacuate from southern Lebanon on Monday morning shortly after the UNSC resolution calling for ending Israel-Lebanon conflict took effect.

But only a limited number of troops began to withdraw from Lebanon, media quoted army sources as saying, without disclosing further details.

Israel Defence Minister Amir Peretz said in a nationally broadcast statement on Monday that Israeli troops in Lebanon "will remain on guard" and will respond forcefully to any threat.

"We won't wait for Hezbollah to rebuild as it was before the operation in southern Lebanon," expressing that except for local incidents, the cease-fire is holding.

Referring to the UN Interim Force in Lebanon which is to help the Lebanese army control the south, he said that "We have launched coordination with UNIFIL officials to start handing over the ground."

Source: Xinhua