1.
GV EXTERIOR Villa Mansour
0.05

2.
GV Delegates arriving. (2 shots)
0.24

3.
SV Car arrives and guard of honour comes to attention as M. Butros enters building
0.46

4.
GV Delegates seated in conference room listening to M. Butros.(4 shots)
1.02



Initials VS 14.50



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: INTRODUCTION Lebanese Foreign Minister Fuad Butros told a joint meeting of the parliamentary defence and foreign affairs committees that his government had no control over the troubled southern regions of the Lebanon.

SYNOPSIS: The joint meeting was half at the Villa Mansour in Beirut on Tuesday (1 march).

Members of parliament from several parties attended to hear M. Butros discuss the situation.

M. Butros told them that Lebanese President Elias Sarkis was trying, in collaboration with Arab and other friendly states to contain the fighting in the sensitive south.

The region has been troubled by persistent clashes between leftist-Palestinian forces and righting forces. M. Butros also said that the Lebanon wanted to take part in a renewed Geneva Middle East peace conference, although it had no territorial dispute with Israel.

At the end of the meeting the committee called on the government to give priority to tackling the situation in the south as a joint Arab responsibility.