BEIRUT, Lebanon - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will pay an official visit to Lebanon on March 30, a government source told AFP on Friday.

"During his visit, Mr Ban will be received by (Prime Minister Fuad) Siniora," the source said.

It will be the first trip to Lebanon by the new UN chief, who took over from Kofi Annan on January 1.

Ban is due to visit Egypt on March 23, probably followed by Riyadh where he has been invited by Arab League chief Amr Mussa to attend an Arab summit on March 28 and 29.

Lebanon's four-month-long political crisis will be one of the major topics discussed at the Riyadh summit.

Predominantly Sunni Saudi Arabia supports the Western-backed Siniora government in Beirut, while the opposition in Lebanon is led by the Shiite Hezbollah movement backed by Iran and Syria.

Arab diplomatic sources in Riyadh told AFP on Tuesday that Saudi Arabia was working on hosting a reconciliation meeting next week between Lebanon's anti-Syrian parliamentary majority and the largely pro-Damascus opposition.

Such a meeting would depend on the attitude of Syria, the former powerbroker in Lebanon. Relations between Riyadh and Damascus are currently at an all-time low.

On Wednesday, the UN chief told the Security Council that he was concerned about reports of arms smuggling from Syria to Lebanon, and he also asked Israel to stop its warplanes from entering Lebanese airspace in breach of Resolution 1701 which ended last year's 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah. -AFP