Lebanese estimate cost of rebuilding at $1 billion

NICOSIA [MENL] -- At the first session of the Lebanese parliament since Israel's withdrawal from south Lebanon, Prime Minister Salim Hoss said it would cost $1 billion to rebuild the south and repair all the damage and he appealed for international aid.

Hoss, addressing 125 members of parliament in Bint Jbeil in southern Lebanon said the government "will work seriously and relentlessly to fulfil the needs of the citizens and their demands to rebuild destroyed or damaged houses and secure water, electricity and roads," Hoss said.

The government has alotted $60 million for the renovations, including $33m to rebuild destroyed homes, Deputy Prime Minister Michel al-Murr said. $13 million will cover repairs to the infrastructure in most of the region.

So far, the Islamic Development Bank has pledged a grant of $100 million to help defray the costs.

The Kuwaiti government and the Kuwaiti Fund for Arab Economic Development have offered $20 million to finance projects in the western Bekaa Valley in southern Lebanon.

Hoss decided to hold the parliamentary session in Bint Jbeil, following Friday's mass rally by Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Bint Jbeil, attended by about 100,000 people.

House Speaker Nabih Berri, leader of the Shiite Muslim Amal movement, opened the session calling for a minute of silence in "memory of the martyrs who fell for the liberation of southern Lebanon," a week after the Israeli withdrawal from the security zone. This was Berri's first visit to the former security zone.

Large posters of Berri and Amal red-and-green flags flew from electricity poles and walls in villages in the region.