Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has said that newly-passed UN Security Council Resolution 1701 on Lebanon was "a step in the right direction," the official MENA news agency reported Sunday.

In an interview with the Egyptian daily al-Messa, Mubarak said,"We welcome the international resolution for being the first step in the right direction. And, to put it simply, we just accept what the Lebanese government accepts."

Mubarak said that Egypt supported any international overture to stop bloodshedding in Lebanon and end sufferings of the Lebanese people and destruction of Lebanon's infrastructure.

Mubarak, however, said that the resolution still lacked a required balance in many of its parts despite all the amendments.He criticized the resolution for failing to call for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire.

The resolution disregarded parts of a seven-point plan floated by Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Seniora on July 26, Mubarak said,adding that the resolution also overlooked some of amendments that the Lebanese government had asked the Security Council to endorse.

The veteran president slammed the Security Council for its slowness in moving to contain the crisis and end Israel's aggression on Lebanon.

Mubarak said that the issuance of Resolution 1701 was not the end of the line while calling on all parties concerned to implement it.

Mubarak also warned that more crises similar to the present one would occur in the future unless a just and overall peace shouldbe restored to all parts of the Middle East -- Lebanon, Syria and the occupied Palestinian lands.

On Friday, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 1701, calling for Israeli troops withdrawal and authorizing an increase of the existing UN force in Lebanon to 15,000 troops to help Lebanese troops take control of south Lebanonas Israel withdraws.

France and the United States, co-sponsors of the draft resolution, came up with a compromise final version after days of hard wrangling. And the resolution has left out some key demands from both Israel and Lebanon in efforts to produce a workable arrangement.

The conflict between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah guerillas erupted on July 12 when Hezbollah guerillas kidnapped two Israeli soldiers and killed eight others during a cross-border raid.