"France has been in UNIFIL (the UN interim force in Lebanon) since 1978 and we are in command today," She said on the French national television France 2.

"We are going to continue to maintain this command, we are ready to do so until next February, including for an enlarged UNIFIL," she said.

She also warned against a hazy mission of this force, which would be transformed in catastrophe.

"The question today is not how many and when, it is for what and how," she said.

According to the French minister, the mandate of the United Nations in southern Lebanon is something vague. To send a force without specified mission, adapted and important enough means, this would be transformed into catastrophe, she said.

The United Nations Tuesday said it hoped an initial deployment of more than 3,000 troops for the strengthened force could be in place within two weeks to shore up the fragile truce between Israel and the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah.

Hedi Annabi, the assistant secretary-general for peacekeeping operations, said the rapid deployment was needed to beef up the existing UN Interim Force in Lebanon as mandated by UN Resolution 1701, which was unanimously adopted Friday, gives a mandate for UNIFIL to increase from its current level of 2,000 troops to 15,000.