Beirut - The United Nations said Saturday that the situation in southern Lebanon nearly three months after the end of a month of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah guerillas was 'looking well,' but that Israeli overflights over Lebanon had to stop.

'Things in the south are looking very well, but we need an end to the overflights,' Geir Pedersen, the Lebanon representative of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, said after a meeting with Lebanese Foreign Minister Fawzi Salloukh.

Since the end of the Israeli war on Lebanon on August 14, Israel has continued with its daily overflights over Beirut and southern Lebanon.

Last month, Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz said the overflights were necessary to monitor what he said was continuing arms smuggling by Hezbollah.

The international community has criticized the violations of Lebanese airspace and called on Israel to halt the flights.

Israel on July 12 launched a wide-scale offensive in Lebanon against the Shiite movement Hezbollah to avenge the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers and the killing of several others in a cross-border raid.

Over 1,000 Lebanese, nearly all civilians, were killed in the fighting, while a total of 169 Israelis, including soldiers, were killed.

The war was ended by UN resolution 1701 which called for a beefed- up UN force to monitor the Lebanese-Israel border together with the Lebanese army. The resolution also called for a UN naval force, currently headed by Germany, to supervise the coast to prevent arms shipments to Hezbollah.