Saturday, August 12 2006 15:04 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

United Nations: The UN Security Council has unanimously passed a resolution calling for a 'full cessation of hostilities' in Lebanon and increasing the strength and mandate of the United Nations' Interim Force in the country.

The Council action yesterday, which came a month after the conflict began, does not set any date for the cessation of hostilities and diplomats say it might not bring an end to the conflict immediately.

The resolution calls for immediate cessation by Hezbollah of all attacks and the immediate cessation by Israel of all offensive military operations.

The Israeli cabinet is due to meet later today to consider the resolution and it is also unclear how Hezbollah would react.

The Council has not set any deadline for Israel's withdrawal from those areas in Southern Lebanon it has occupied during the current conflict but has asked Tel Aviv to withdraw its forces as Lebanese troops are deployed in the region.

The resolution, which sought to strike a compromise between viewpoints of various parties, provides for increasing the strength of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) to 15,000 and its mandate to support Lebanese armed forces as they are deployed in the south.

But increasing the strength of UNIFIL from current 2,000 to 15,000 could take several weeks.