Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Thursday that Australia will "highly unlikely" send more troops to join the U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon.

The U.N. Security Council resolution adopted last week authorized 13,000 troops to reinforce its existing 2,000-strong UNIFIL (United Nations Interim Force In Lebanon) force in Lebanon.

Downer said Australia won't have the right sort of capability to send more troops to strengthen its small contribution in Lebanon.

"To be honest with you, having looked at it and talked with a number of people about it in recent days, I think it's much less likely than likely that we will send any troops at all to reinforce UNIFIL," he told Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio.

"We do have a very small number of people already in UNIFIL and in the truce supervision organization there as well, but I think in total it's around 12," he said.

"I think it's highly unlikely we'll send any more," he said.

He said the concern on whether UNIFIL should disarm Hezbollah guerrillas is not the reason Australia won't send more troops to Lebanon.

"On my reading of the Security Council resolution 1701, it won't be disarming Hezbollah and if that is the case I think it could be a difficult situation for UNIFIL," Downer said.

"That's not the reason that we won't participate in it, but I think it's unlikely we'll be able to participate because we won't have the right sort of capability to really give it additional strength," he added.