By DPA
New York : The United Nations Security Council has extended the 13,000-strong UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon by one year.
The 15-nation council unanimously approved the move Friday and called on militant group Hezbollah and Israel to uphold a one-year ceasefire and continue to respect the UN established border between Lebanon and Israel.
The council also called for the immediate release of two Israeli soldiers captured by Hezbollah in July 2006, an act that triggered Israeli retaliation and the war last summer.
French Ambassador Jean-Pierre Lacroix welcomed the decision as a sign of the continuing strong support for the Lebanon force, known as UNIFIL. The peacekeepers, agreed on after a UN-brokered ceasefire last August, remained an irreplaceable asset in the region, Lacroix said.
But US Ambassador Alejandro Wolf said he was concerned that arms were still being smuggled to Hezbollah through Syria, despite a UN call for Hezbollah to disarm.
The UN force has been strengthened in the past year to monitor the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire and now has more than 11,400 troops on the ground in southern Lebanon, while an international naval force off the coast of Lebanon is manned by 2,000 troops. UNIFIL has also a staff of about 750 civilians.
The Security Council said more progress was needed on reaching a fina