Beirut - The planned deployment of 15,000 Lebanese troops into the country's south would entail sending in a force which is weak and poorly equipped.
Expert opinion has it that the guerrillas of the Hezbollah force they are meant to deter have more firepower. Lebanon's troops have so far played as good as no part in the current fighting.
The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) puts the strength of the Lebanese Army at 72,000 men, including revervists, but other experts would see this rather at 40,000.
At most 25,000 or so have experience from the 1975-1990 civil war and the army is considered more of a peacekeeping force than an offensive one, a military expert told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
Lebanon's military spending last year was 530 million dollars. The army has 310 ageing Russian T-54 and T-55 plus US-made M-48 tanks. There are as good as no anti-aircraft weapons.
The artillery has a relatively low number of some 540 pieces, while the 1,000-man air force has six ageing fighter-bombers and a few dozen helicopters. The navy has 32 patrol and coastal vessels.
There is also a paramilitary force of 13,000 men and a smaller navy of around 1,000.
The Lebanese army has asked Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia,to urgently provide military equipment, according to a government source.
UN Security Council resolution 1559 had already called in 2004 for Lebanon to take control of its entire territory - meaning, apart from the withdrawal of Syrian troops, the disarming of Hezbollah.
The government and army did not comply with this requirement, leaving the southern border region abutting Israel largely to Hezbollah.
Sceptics would immediately point out that the Lebanese armed forces are in no position to act against Hezbollah. One trenchant reason: Almost half the soldiers are Shiites, many pro-Hezbollah.
Supreme command of the armed forces lies with two Maronite Christians - President Emile Lahoud and army chief Michel Suleiman.
