France on Sunday called for a meeting of European Union (EU) countries next week to determine their troop contributions to an enlarged UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon.

"We ask that European solidarity is expressed as soon as possible about Lebanon," Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy told France Info radio in an interview, adding that he had asked Finland, which currently holds the EU's rotating presidency, to call a meeting in Brussels next week.

He said France wanted "to know what our different European partners count on doing as quickly as possible about Lebanon."

On Friday, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged member states to send troops without delay to reinforce the UN Interim Force to Lebanon (UNIFIL), which was tasked with overseeing the ceasefire in the Israel-Hezbollah conflict. The world body wants 3,500 troop on the ground by Aug. 28.

France, which commands the UNIFIL, has decided to send 200 extra troops, mostly engineers, to help the peacekeeping force consolidate the truce. The first unit of 50 troops arrived on Saturday in Naqoura, a port in southern Lebanon, near the Israeli borders.

Once the UN has clarified the mandate of the force, France could send more troops at a later date, Douste-Blazy said.

Under a UN-brokered ceasefire which took effect on Monday, 15,000 UN troops are expected to help the same number of Lebanese troops deployed in southern Lebanon take control of the area.

So far, Italy, Turkey and Finland have declared their readiness to send soldiers while asking for more details about the precise mandate of the force.