A U.N. report said Lebanon's eastern borders remain open to the smuggling of weapons from Syria.

The daily an-Nahar, in a dispatch from New York, said the conclusion was made in a report prepared by the independent committee to assess the situation along joint Lebanese-Syrian borders to facilitate implementation of UNSCR 1701 that ended a 34-day war between Hizbullah and Israel in the summer of 2006 and banned the illegal transfer of weapons into Lebanon.

The report, according to an-Nahar, criticized both Lebanon and Syria for the lack of progress in security arrangements along the borders to prevent "smuggling in general, and the smuggling of weapons in particular, despite all pledges made by both countries to enforce security along the joint borders and other crossings in order to prevent the transport of weapons, or related items, to Lebanon without the approval of its government."

The committee's first report, issued on June 27, 2007, resulted in a similar conclusion.

The U.N. Security Council, expressed on Aug. 3 its "deep concern" over information on the persisting violation of a ban on the illegal transport of weapons into Lebanon.

A spokesman for the U.N. chief told an-Nahar the committee's report would be referred to the Security Council "today or tomorrow."