Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi said yesterday that a "political solution" should be found to disarm the militant group Hezbollah.

Speaking to reporters in the Tuscan resort of Castiglione dellaPescaia ,Prodi stressed that Italian peacekeepers who will be deployed in Lebanon as part of a United Nations peacekeeping force will "stick firmly to the UN mandate" for the mission.

"We're going there to help the Lebanese government ... it's obvious that the Lebanese government will have to make political decisions and I hope that the political situation will be such as to avoid a need for this," he said.

Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema said earlier Thursday that Italian soldiers would face a difficult mission but were not being sent to disarm the militant group.

"It would be wrong to say our soldiers are going there to disarm Hezbollah," he said.