JERUSALEM - Israel on Wednesday delayed pulling out its remaining troops from Lebanon, saying questions still had to be ironed out with the beefed-up UN peacekeeping force and the Lebanese army.

"We very much hoped that the withdrawal would be completed by Friday but after contacts we have had with the UN and the Lebanese army, there are still unresolved questions," army chief Dan Halutz told reporters.

"I hope they will be resolved in the coming two to three days after the holiday," he added, referring to the two-day Jewish new year holiday which begins at sundown Friday.

Halutz did not specify what problems were holding up the withdrawal, which both he and Defense Minister Amir Peretz had said should be completed by Friday evening.

Earlier Wednesday, a spokesman for the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) told AFP that the number of its peacekeepers in south Lebanon had more than doubled to 5,000 -- a key condition that Israel has demanded before completely exiting its northern neighbor.

"We have reached the 5,000 troops. The first phase of the UNIFIL deployment is now completed," said Alexander Ivanko in the Mediterranean coastal town of Naqura on the border with Israel.

The UN peacekeeping force in south Lebanon, eventually to reach 15,000 troops, is aimed at overseeing a truce that ended a month of devastating warfare on August 14 between Israel and Hezbollah.

The pre-war number of about 2,000 UNIFIL troops, Ivanko said, had been boosted by three new battalions from France, Italy and Spain, although it would still take weeks for all the new troops to be deployed in the south.

Troops from other countries, notably Indonesia, will follow in October and November, he said, adding that the operation posed a "logistical nightmare".

In Berlin, the German parliament authorised the dispatch of a naval contingent of up to 2,400 personnel to patrol Lebanon's coast, in Germany's first military foray into the Middle East since World War II.

But because of the Nazi regime's responsibility for the Holocaust, Germany has ruled out sending ground troops to the region to avoid the possibility of German soldiers clashing with Israeli troops.

Israeli forces have remained in southern Lebanon for more than a month since the ceasefire resolution came into effect on August 14.

The troops have gradually redeployed south of the volatile border as the French-led UNIFIL forces and the Lebanese army assume control in southern Lebanon -- the latter for the first time in four decades.

On Wednesday, UNIFIL's French battalion -- 900 soldiers who will eventually swell to 2,000 -- deployed another 10 Leclerc battle tanks in the south, for the first time under UN colors.

But Israel's delayed pullout looked set to cast a shadow over Hezbollah preparations to celebrate a "divine victory" with a rally Friday in the Shiite southern suburbs of Beirut.

The demonstration, on the Muslim day of prayer, was called before the Israeli announcement, although the presence of its leader Hassan Nasrallah, Israel's public enemy number one, remains uncertain due to fears for his safety.

"We are preparing an open site. The main leaders of Hezbollah will be present, but we cannot say if Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah will be there, for security reasons," spokesman Hossein Rahal said.

Nasrallah, whose name means "victory of God", has not been seen in public since the day the war broke out, after Hezbollah's capture of two Israeli soldiers. While his whereabouts remain secret, the Hezbollah chief has made a string of Arab television appearances.

Asked by Israel's privately owned Channel Two television whether Nasrallah would be a target if he turned up Friday, the Israeli army chief said: "I prefer not to answer that question."

Since UN Security Council Resolution 1701 came into effect, the Lebanese army has been slowly deploying in south Lebanon, where Hezbollah had held sway since the end of Israel's previous 22-year occupation in 2000.

Almost every village now has a military post, either fixed or under tents, topped by the red, green and white Lebanese flag. The target is for 15,000 Lebanese troops to stamp Beirut's sovereignty on the south, backed by the same number of UNIFIL soldiers.

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