1.
GV: United Nations vehicle entering Lebanese army post
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2.
SV: Lebanese soldiers behind barricades ZOOM OUT TO military truck entering post
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3.
GV PAN: Soldiers building sandbag emplacement PAN others with weapons
0.51

4.
GV PAN: Roadblock and highway ZOOM INTO U.N. flag on building and troops at another roadblock
1.05

5.
SV: Car arrives UN officers checking car with Lebanese soldiers talking to driver
1.26

6.
GV: Officers looking from balcony PAN TO checkpoint on road
1.39

7.
SV PAN: Another car being checked and UN and Lebanese troops manning post
1.54




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Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: Regular Lebanese troops have moved into the unstable South, to back up the United Nations interim peace keeping force. It's seen as an attempt by the Lebanese Government to impose its own military authority on an area which, for two years, has been disputed by Israeli-backed militia and Palestinian forces.

SYNOPSIS: The Lebanese Army moved into position in the village of Qana which has been controlled for some time now by the United Nations Interim force. It's task has been to separate the Israeli backed Christian militia and Palestinian guerrillas, who both have claims on the territory.

As they build u their emplacement sin the village, Lebanese Army commanders are battling to reserve the dignity of their forces. The newly rebuilt Army has recently received a number of defiant and humiliating blows. These have come from irregular militiamen, who've been wrecking the Government's attempts to replace the army which disintegrated in the civil war five years ago.

This new presence is part of a Government plan to dispatch three battalions to South lebanon over a period of two years. One is now stationed in Sidon, the other south east of the port town in Kawkaba, and this one now supports the U.N. forces.

But incidents in an around Sidon over the past few weeks have shown how vulnerable the supply routes to these three battalions have become. The police seem to suffer just as much. Security patrols -- including the body guards of Prime Minister Selim el Hoss himself - have been kidnapped and stripped of their weapons.

Lebanon has more than thirty private militia groups: twenty thousand Syrian peace keeping troops; and about twenty thousand Palestinian guerrillas. It means the regular army faces a constant struggle in an apparently futile attempt to regain respectability in a state of total lawlessness.