"The naval blockade has lifted," announced Miri Eisen from Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office on Friday afternoon.
"The UN naval force led by Italy has taken control of the sector in complete coordination with the Israeli military and will be implementing the embargo on arms intended for Hezbollah," she added.
A force led by Italy and including French and Greek ships began patrolling Lebanese waters to thwart gun running to the Shiite Muslim guerrillas, in line with UN Resolution 1701 that ended the month-long conflict between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
The maritime patrols cannot, however, use force to stop ships from passing, French defence ministry spokesman Jean-Francois Bureau said Friday in Paris.
An advance party of Italian troops, part of a 2,500-strong contingent from Italy, earlier arrived in Lebanon, while France is weighing in with 2,000 soldiers.
The Greek frigate Kanaris, with 200 men onboard, joined the ships from France and Italy off the Lebanese coast on Friday.
Meanwhile around 570 Spanish soldiers left the Rota naval base in southern Spain for Lebanon, the first half of an eventual contingent of 1,100 Spaniards.
Spain's contribution to the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) is the third largest by a European Union state.
They will be stationed at Marjayoun in south-eastern Lebanon following their arrival next week, but will give way in early November to a larger force of legionnaires and mechanised units who will command a multinational brigade including troops from Belgium, Finland, Ireland, Poland and Portugal.
International efforts continued to underpin the truce on Friday, with a beefed up UN-force deploying not only along the coast but also in southern Lebanon alongside Lebanese army units as Israeli troops pulled out.
German forces were expected to eventually lead the naval force, while UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said that as many as 5,000 UN peacekeepers could be in southern Lebanon by mid-September.
"Israel's intention is to exit as soon as possible from the moment the coordination between Israel and the international forces is complete," Defence Minister Amir Peretz's office quoted him as saying.
In Beirut, the country's international airport bustled as business gradually returned to normal.
Peace efforts
The naval patrols began amid a rush of international diplomacy aimed at shoring up the three-week-old UN-brokered ceasefire in Lebanon.
Israel began its siege of Lebanon on July 13, a day after it responded with a massive offensive to the capture of two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border attack by Hezbollah.
The war -- which killed more than 1,200 Lebanese, mostly civilians, and 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers -- also shattered Lebanon's economy, with the blockade almost completely cutting off the country from the outside world.
The Israeli government has come under domestic fire for its handling of the 34-day war, particularly its failure to crush Hezbollah or retrieve the two captive soldiers.
In a sign of a potential breakthrough on a key bone of contention with Lebanon, Israel said it was prepared to discuss the status of the disputed Shebaa Farms if Hezbollah disarmed and the UN ruled the area was Lebanese.
Shebaa is a small plot of land on the border of Israel, Lebanon and Syria that was captured by Israel from Syria during the 1967 war. It is now claimed by Lebanon with Damascus's approval.
Call for cluster bomb probe
After returning home from a tour of the Middle East, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called for an investigation into Israel's use of cluster bombs during its conflict with Lebanon, Russia’s ITAR-TASS news agency reported.
"It is in everyone's interest and in the interest of finally turning this page that such an investigation be conducted, facts be determined with no ambiguities left," Mr Lavrov said.
Israel insisted that "all weapons it used were up to international norms and conventions, and that forbidden weapons were not used," he said.
While the case was probed on Lebanon's request, "clarification from an independent source would not hurt," said the minister.
UN humanitarian chief Jan Egeland has warned that thousands of civilians are at risk in southern Lebanon from an estimated 100,000 unexploded cluster bombs dropped by Israeli forces in the last three days of the war.