A week after Germany said that it still hoped to win Syrian help in resolving the conflict in Lebanon, and that the countries' foreign ministers had held fresh talks, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan announced Friday that Syrian President Bashar Assad had assented to deploy a battalion to the Lebanese border in order to prevent arms smuggling.

Russia to probe Hizbullah weapons Annan added that Assad had already asked Germany for help in training and equipping its forces for the mission, Israel Radio reported.

Last week, Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema said in an interview that the international community would not tolerate Syrian arms shipments to Hizbullah or other violations of the UN resolution that ended a month of fighting between Israel and the Shi'ite organization.

'The Syrians must know that if weapons come from Syria or acts in violation of UN Resolution 1701 are committed, the international community will not stand by and watch,' D'Alema told RAI state radio.

The UN has said that so far there are no plans to deploy its strengthened peacekeeping force along Lebanon's border with Syria, something that Assad has said he would consider a hostile act.