U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has arrived in Israel where he is expected to press the government to lift its air and sea blockade of Lebanon.
Mr. Annan is visiting the Jewish state after meeting with Lebanese government officials in Beirut.
Israel has said it will lift the blockade only when international troops are patrolling Lebanon's borders.
Earlier today, Mr. Annan toured southern Lebanon -- hit hard by the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.
In Beirut Monday, the secretary general urged Hezbollah to release two captured Israeli soldiers.
Mr. Annan's Mideast tour is aimed at shoring up the ceasefire which ended the month-long fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.
Also today, hundreds of Italian troops in naval vessels left for Lebanon. The contingent is the first of 25-hundred Italian troops for an expanded U.N. peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon.
