Lebanese President Emile Lahoud has rejected the UN offer to deploy troops along his country's border with Syria, the presidential office said Saturday. ahead the UN chief's visit next week.

Lahoud, in a recent interview with foreign media, said that the UN troops should be deployed where border conflicts flare up, but there are no disputes between Lebanon and Syria, the office said in a statement.

The president said that the Lebanese army, well equipped with monitoring devices, are fully capable of cracking down border smuggling. "Syria is sure to do the same on the other side of the border," Lahoud was quoted as saying.

The Lebanese position was clarified in the statement just before UN Secretary General Kofi Annan is to pay a visit to Beirut on Monday, when he is expected to discuss with Lebanese leaders the deployment of a reinforcement of UN peacekeeping forces and some measures to secure the Lebanese border with Syria.

Israel has vowed to maintain its air and sea blockade of Lebanon until the frontier is clamped shut and new arms are not flowing to Hezbollah fighters from their benefactors in Syria and Iran.

Lahoud also condemned Israel for its continued military strikes in defiance of the relevant UN resolution, hoping that the UN troops would be deployed along the Lebanese-Israeli border as soon as possible.

On Friday, the European nations pledged 7,000 troops to form the core of an expanded peacekeeping mission in Lebanon in line with UN Resolution 1701.

Source: Xinhua