Lebanon would be last country to have peace with Israel

Lebanon's Prime Minister Fouad Siniora yesterday dismissed Israeli call for direct talks with Israel and said Lebanon would be the last Arab state to ever sign a peace deal with Israel.

"Let it be clear, we are not seeking any agreement until there is just and comprehensive peace based on the Arab initiative," Siniora told reporters.

He was referring to a plan that came out of a 2002 Arab League summit in Beirut. It calls for Israel to return all territories it conquered in the 1967 Mideast war, the establishment of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital and a solution to the Palestinian refugee problem all in exchange for peace and full normalization of Arab relations with the occupying regime.

Siniora said 130,000 housing units had been destroyed or damaged in more than a month of Israeli air raids and ground assaults fighting against Lebanon. $3.6 billion of physical damage is said to have inflicted on Lebanon, without counting the real economic damage and loss.

He departed from Beirut's airport midday, heading to an international donors' conference set for Thursday in Stockholm, Sweden.