Italian president to visit Beirut Nov. 5

Preparations in Lebanon are underway for the landmark visit to Beirut by Italian President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro on November 5. An official delegation will accompany the president during his three-day visit, a statement issued by President Elias Hrawi said this week.

House Speaker Nabih Berri on Monday called for a plenary session on November 7 during which Scalfaro will address the general assembly.

Lebanon imports more goods from Italy than any other country, with the volume of bilateral trade exceeding $1 billion annually.

Italy also has participated in Lebanon's efforts to reconstruct itself from the civil war ruins and has around 50 troops in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, the peacekeeping force deployed in south Lebanon since 1978.

Scalfaro will be the second western president to visit Lebanon since the end of the civil war. The only other head of state is French president Jacques Chirac, who in 1996 twice visited Lebanon.