Lebanese troops were greeted with cheers and Hezbollah flags as they deployed south of the Litani river this morning, fulfilling a key provision of the UN ceasefire plan to end the fighting in southern Lebanon between Israel and the Shia Muslim guerrilla group.

Ten armoured carriers mounted on flatbed trucks drove across a newly installed metal bridge over the river at dawn, escorted by several military vehicles. The bridge was built by the army to replace a structure that was bombed by Israeli warplanes during the 34-day offensive.

The deployment marks a first towards extending government control across the whole of Lebanon for the first time since 1969, when a weak Lebanese government ceded the area to Palestinian militants who launched cross-border attacks on Israel.

The deployment into the ceasefire zone south of Litani was sanctioned by Lebanon's Cabinet yesterday and 15,000 Lebanese troops should eventually be joined by an equal number of international peacekeepers to patrol the border region.

But it is still far from clear where those troops will come from. France said today that it was sending an extra 200 troops to the UN force in Lebanon, but has not yet decided how many more soldiers it will commit.

The Government said that despite both Israeli and UN demands its troops would not hunt down Hezbollah guerrillas in a bid to disarm the fighters who are considered heroes across the Arab world for their resistance to the Israeli invasion. The fighters themselves were reported today to have "melted away" as the Lebanese troops arrived.

"There will be no confrontation between the army and brothers in Hezbollah. ... That is not the army’s mission," said Ghazi Aridi, the Information Minister. "They are not going to chase or, God forbid, exact revenge."

The vanguard of the Lebanese force crossed the Litani River at its mouth on the Mediterranean coastline, at Qasimiya, 20 miles north of the Israeli border, at about 6:40am (0340 GMT).

In Marjayoun, a Christian town near the Israeli border that was briefly occupied by Israeli forces during their incursion into Lebanon last week, flatbed trucks carrying a total of 20 Lebanese tanks arrived along with a dozen trucks loaded with troops and hoisting the Lebanese flags.

Soldiers raised the red and white cedar flag of Lebanon above the parade ground in Marjayoun, which was the headquarters Israeli forces and their proxy militia, the South Lebanon Army (SLA), during the occupation of southern Lebanon from 1982 to 2000.

"The Lebanese people are waiting for you. We salute on the solemn day firstly the martyrs who have shed their blood on the earth of the motherland. And we salute the resistance," General Charles Shikhani, the Lebanese army's regional commander, told his troops. He said it was the first time that the army had been in Marjayoun since 1968.

"I feel safer now," said Shadi Shammas, a 30-year-old Marjayoun native. "The army before was not like now. Now, if Hezbollah has guns, the army can take them and that wasn’t the case before."

"Today is a new beginning for us in south Lebanon, said George Najm, a 23-year-old man from nearby Qlaia. "We’ll need some time to feel safe but it’s a great start. It was a good move by the government."

The Lebanese army numbers about 60,000 active troops but lacks significant firepower and fighting experience, despite Lebanon's bloody history. According to The Military Balance, an annual report published by the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, most of its number are more police officers than soldiers.

Quoting UN and diplomatic sources, Le Monde said that France was considering sending just a dozen officers and around 200 personnel from an engineering division for the beefed-up UN Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil).

France would also offer the United Nations the use of a rapid reaction force but would not place the troops under UN command, the newspaper reported.

There was no immediate comment from the French Government. Michele Alliot-Marie, the country's Defence Minister, said yesterday that France was willing to lead the UN force until at least February, so long as it was given a clear mandate and strong powers.

However, she declined to say how many troops France would commit to Unifil, which is eventually expected to consist of 15,000 soldiers, up from 2,000 at present.

The Israeli military began handing over positions to the United Nations this morning, stepping up its withdrawal from southern Lebanon after the Lebanese army deployment. "The process of transferring authority has begun," an Israeli army statement said.

A senior Hezbollah official, Mohammad Fneish, who is Energy Minister in the Lebanese Government, said the army's deployment was not a problem for Hezbollah if there was no attempt to disarm its fighters.

"As long as the principle is applied not to disarm Hezbollah there will be no problem over the deployment of the Lebanese army and the deployment of the international force," he told the al-Balad newspaper.

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