NAQURA, Lebanon - UN-hosted talks Tuesday between Lebanese and Israeli army officers to agree a schedule for Israel's full withdrawal from south Lebanon were inconclusive, a UN official told AFP.

"Nothing is planned this week," the official added, speaking under condition of anonymity, when asked when another meeting might be held.

The promised troop withdrawal from Lebanon could now be delayed after Israel spoke of snags that could postpone the pullout of its forces until next week.

Israel had initially said the Lebanon pullout, after a two-month occupation of border areas, would be completed by last Friday. But it was delayed until after last weekend's Jewish New Year holidays.

General Alain Pellegrini, commander of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), said the meeting had been "constructive" and that the Israeli withdrawal could still go ahead by Saturday.

"It is my belief that with the necessary cooperation by both parties we should see the IDF (Israeli army) leave south Lebanon by the end of this month," Pellegrini said.

Tuesday's coordination meeting aimed at finalising the schedule for the last few hundred Israeli soldiers to withdraw was held in a villa at a secret location in Naqura on the border, UNIFIL said.

It was the sixth such weekly encounter, held without handshakes or even exchanged glances, since an August 14 ceasefire after the devastating month-long war between Israel and Hezbollah.

In Jerusalem, Peretz told reporters earlier that Israel now hoped to bring its troops home "during this week, or at the latest several days later.

"We are prepared for the exit," following a UN-brokered ceasefire which took effect six weeks ago, he said after addressing parliament's foreign affairs and defence committee.

"There are agreements and negotiations that we intend to complete in order to set the rules on what is allowed," regarding UNIFIL's rules of engagement in case of ceasefire violations by Hezbollah, Peretz said.

A committee member said they were told the elusive withdrawal following the war with the Syrian-backed Hezbollah would be completed by this "Friday or the beginning of next week".

In comments likely to raise tensions in the region, meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert vowed he would never return the occupied Golan Heights to Syria.

"As long as I serve as prime minister the Golan Heights will remain in our hands because it is an integral part of the State of Israel," Olmert was quoted as saying by Israeli newspapers.

A UNIFIL official said Monday that Israeli troops were still occupying 10 positions in south Lebanon.

They remain in zones stretching from Yarin in the eastern sector to Kfarkila in the centre, said French Major Philippe Lebrat, the military assistant to Pellegrini.

"There are no obstructions," Lebrat had said before the latest meeting Tuesday.

Since the war, UNIFIL has been boosted to 5,000 troops and the Lebanese army has been deploying in the border area for the first time in almost four decades, in line with a UN ceasefire resolution and Israeli demands.

But Lebrat said the ill-equipped Lebanese army was "not in a position" yet to take over territories controlled by Hezbollah, while Israel was "taking its time to consolidate its defences".

Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz, meanwhile, was reported as saying overflights of Lebanon by the Jewish state's warplanes will continue even after its troops withdraw.

He told Channel 10 television the flights would continue for as long as two Israeli soldiers captured by Hezbollah on July 12 remain captive, and until the Lebanon-Syria border is sealed to prevent weapons supplies to the Shiite militia.

In the six years since Israel ended its two-decade occupation of southern Lebanon, UNIFIL has repeatedly condemned its illegal violations of Lebanese airspace.

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