He was greeted at the airport by his Lebanese counterpart Mahumd Hammud and was expected to hold talks on Sunday with President Emile Lahoud, Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, the foreign ministry said.

He is then due to fly to Saudi Arabia for the final stage of his whirlwind tour of the region.

France has been a vocal opponent of the US-British war, and after a meeting with Egyptian Hosni Mubarak Saturday, de Villepin stressed that coalition troops should be responsible for maintaining order in Iraq, which has been the scene of widespread looting since the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime.

SPACE.WIRE