Israel rejected a call from UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan yesterday to lift its six-week air-and-sea blockade of Lebanon, saying it would only raise the siege once all elements of a ceasefire were in place.

During an hour of talks with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Annan had pressed for a lifting of the blockade, imposed after the start of the war against Lebanon?s Hizbollah guerrilla group on July 12, mainly on economic grounds.

But at a news conference after their meeting, Olmert rebuffed Annan, saying any relaxation of pressure on Lebanon?s ports and airspace depended on the full implementation of UN resolution 1701, which governs the ceasefire with Hizbollah.

?The (resolution) is a fixed buffet and everything will be implemented, including the lifting of the blockade, as part of the entire implementation of the different articles,? he said.

Olmert was equally firm when it came to suggestions from Annan that Israel should withdraw all its troops from southern Lebanon within ?days or weeks?, once up to 5,000 UN-backed peacekeepers are on the ground.

?Israel will pull out of Lebanon once the resolution is implemented,? Olmert said, indicating a longer timeline.

Annan, in Jerusalem after visiting Lebanon, is trying to strengthen a shaky, two-week-old truce that ended a 34-day war between Israel and Hizbollah. His top priority had been the lifting of the blockade, principally on economic grounds.

?It is important not only because of the economic effect it is having on the country but it is also important to strengthen the democratic government of Lebanon with which Israel has repeatedly said it had no problems,? Annan said.

Annan said he hoped soon to double to 5,000 the number of UN troops in Lebanon and urged Israel and Hizbollah to end swiftly all disputes blocking a lasting ceasefire.

On Tuesday, Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz said Israel would pull out thousands of troops that remain in southern Lebanon once a ?reasonable? number of UN soldiers had deployed but did not give a figure.

Resolution 1701 calls for a deployment of 15,000 UN peacekeepers by November 4, alongside Lebanese army troops.

Annan will also hold talks with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni before travelling to the West Bank to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Aides to Annan have said he will also travel to Syria and Iran, Hizbollah?s main backers, later in the week.

<B>Blockade</B>

Israel has refused to lift the blockade on Lebanon, saying UN troops must first deploy along the Lebanese frontier with Syria to prevent Hizbollah rearming.

Annan said the Lebanese saw the blockade as a ?humiliation and infringement of their sovereignty?. But he also urged Beirut to exert control over its borders to stop arms smuggling.

On a visit to devastated southern Lebanon on Tuesday, Annan said ?serious irritants? to the truce were also the fate of the abducted soldiers and that of Lebanese prisoners held in Israel.

US civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, on a visit to the region to try to mediate a prisoner exchange, told Israeli Army Radio he had been informed by a Hizbollah leader that the two soldiers seized by the guerrilla group were alive.

He said that during a visit to Damascus on Monday, ?a Hamas leader told me ... that the Israeli soldier captured by Hamas is alive?. Palestinian militants abducted Corporal Gilad Shalit in a cross-border raid from Gaza in June.

Italy?s first contingent of 800 troops, out of an eventual 3,000 pledged, set sail on Tuesday on what Rome said would be a ?long and risky? mission. The aircraft carrier Garibaldi and four other naval ships were due to reach Lebanon by Friday.

France promised to send a 900-strong battalion before the middle of September, with a second battalion to follow.

The United Nations hopes to create a buffer zone in south Lebanon free of Israeli or Hizbollah forces and policed by the expanded UN force alongside some 15,000 Lebanese troops.

It is hoping Muslim nations will send troops to balance the 7,000 or so pledged by European countries.

The Turkish government said it wanted parliament to meet on September 5 to approve a troop contribution to the UN force, after agreeing in principle to send soldiers.

Other potential Muslim contributors include Indonesia, Malaysia and Bangladesh, although Israel has objected to their taking part because they have no diplomatic ties with the Jewish state.

The war cost the lives of nearly 1,200 people in Lebanon, mainly civilians, and 157 Israelis, mostly soldiers.

The truce on Israel?s northern border is generally holding, but violence has continued in the Palestinian territories.