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Chirac arrives

in Lebanon

BEIRUT: President Jacques Chirac arrives here Thursday on the first official visit by a French head of state since Lebanon gained its independence from France more than 50 years ago.

Chirac's three-day visit, on his first trip to the Middle East since being elected last May, aims to boost the traditional strong ties between Beirut and Paris. It will be followed by a stop in Egypt.

The president will be the first Western head of state to visit since the end of Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war and comes at a time when the government is trying to improve the country's image.

Former French president Francois Mitterrand made an unofficial stopovers in Beirut in October 1983 after Muslim fundamentalist suicide bombers killed 59 French soldiers.

Chirac will be accompanied by Foreign Minister, Herve de Charette, Economy and Finance Minister Jean Arthuis, National Education Minister Francois Bayrou and Health Minister Herve Gaymard.

The secretary of state for Francophone affairs, Margie Sudre, will also be part of the delegation to visit Lebanon, which was under French mandate from 1920 until 1943.

Chirac will hold talks with President Elias Hrawi, parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri and billionaire Prime Minister Rafic Hariri, a personal friend of the French leader.

He will addresss the 128-member Lebanese parliament, inspect French peacekeepers serving in the United Nations Interim Force in south Lebanon (UNIFIL) and hold talks with the head of the Christian Maronite Church.

The meeting with Cardinal Nassrallah Sfeir comes at a time when Lebanon's Christian community around one-third of a population of four million people is worried about its future in a Muslim-dominated Middle East.

France wants the Christians, the main political losers in the civil war, to overcome their fears and participate fully in this year's legislative elections after a Christian boycott in 1992 polls.-AFP