Lebanese President Michel Suleiman condemned the attack on the French Unit, while Italy approves withdrawal of 700 soldiers from UNIFIL.

President Michel Suleiman cabled his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy on Wednesday stressing Lebanon’s keenness on the safety of UNIFIL troops following the roadside bombing that targeted a French patrol near the southern port city of Sidon.

In his call, Suleiman “condemned the attack on the French unit and reiterated Lebanon’s keenness on the safety of UNIFIL members.”

Also Wednesday, Suleiman asked security agencies to intensify efforts to find the suspects of Tuesday’s bombing and bring them to justice.

“The preservation of the security stability in the country is the right and necessary foundation to launch development,” the President said.

Suleiman also tasked Health Minister Ali Hassan Khalil with attending the transportation of the injured soldiers to Paris at Beirut international airport.

Archive - Lebanese soldiers inspect the site of an explosion that targeted an Italian patrol with the UNIFIL in the southern Lebanese town of Rmaileh, near Sidon. Six Italian peacekeepers were wounded.

ITALIAN WITHDRAWAL

Meanwhile, the Italian Senate agreed to withdraw 700 soldiers from the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, AKI Italian news agency reported Wednesday.

The decision was part of an agreement to lower the number of Italian troops from international peacemaking missions from 9,250 to 2,028 in 2012.

It also encompasses reducing the number of Italian troops in Libya and the Balkans, with 884 troops returning from the former and 271 from the latter.

On May 27, six Italian peacekeepers were wounded -- two of them seriously -- along with two civilians in a roadside bomb explosion targeting a U.N. patrol along a highway near the Lebanese coastal city of Sidon.

Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said Italy was "intent" on reducing its presence in Lebanon which currently numbers nearly 1,800 Italian soldiers.

"It's obvious that this is a decision which will be communicated in a U.N. context because this is not an Italian mission, it\'s a U.N. mission," he said.

UNIFIL has been the target of four other unclaimed attacks, the latest on Tuesday when French officers were wounded by a roadside bomb near the city of Sidon.