Malaysia will send a peacekeeping force to Southern Lebanon under the United Nations' (UN) auspices despite opposition from the Israeli regime, said Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak today.

Najib, who is also defence minister, said the presence of Malaysian peacekeepers was most welcomed by Lebanon.

He said he could not understand why the presence of Malaysian peacekeepers was being objected to merely for the technical reason that Malaysia had no diplomatic ties with the Israeli regime.

Malaysia had an excellent record in terms of providing service by its peacekeeping force, he was quoted as saying by Bernama.

Asked whether Malaysia's stand on the Israeli regime could influence the quality of service rendered by the Malaysian peacekeepers in Lebanon later, he said the country's peacekeeping force had always served in a professional manner.

He said the UN had not informed Malaysia when it could send its peacekeeping force to Lebanon.

UN's call

The UN had also not informed Malaysia about the objection by the Israeli regime against the presence of Malaysian peacekeepers there.

The Israeli regime was reported to have objected against the participation of Malaysian troops in the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon on grounds that Kuala Lumpur had no diplomatic relations with Tel Aviv.

The Israeli objection could pose difficulty to UN efforts to send peacekeeping forces to Southern Lebanon to oversee the implementation of the ceasefire between the Israeli regime and Hezbollah beginning Monday.

Besides Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei are among the Muslim countries that have offered to send up to 1,000 troops for the peacekeeping force. France too had made a similar offer.

In a related development, Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar, who is currently in Beirut, said it was the UN and not the Israeli regime that had the final say in selecting the peacekeepers to monitor the situation in Lebanon.

The UN Security Council had unanimously accepted a resolution calling for the ceasefire on Friday.

The resolution enables the UN to send up to 13,000 troops to beef up the present strength of 2,000 troops in the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).