French FM to visit Lebanon to help factions pursue talks

LA CELLE SAINT CLOUD, France (AFP) - Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said yesterday he would visit to Lebanon this month to help rival political factions pursue talks aimed at pulling the country out of crisis.

Kouchner said he would travel to Beirut on July 28 to build on "the progress of the dialogue that has started here in La Celle Saint-Cloud", a Paris suburb where politicians from 14 factions have held two days of talks.

The Lebanon meeting brought together members of the pro-western government of Prime Minister Fuad Siniora and of the pro-Syrian opposition Hezbollah, which fought a war with Israel last year and is branded a terrorist group by the United States.