SHOTLIST:

Nahr el-Bared camp - Northern Lebanon

1. Various of explosion inside camp, smoke rising from buildings

Beddauui camp - Northern Lebanon

2. Wide of hospital building

3. Mid of Red crescent ambulance carrying two old men

4. Old man hugging his family

5. Man stepping down ambulance

6. Mid of ambulance, people nearby

7. Close of old Palestinian man

8. Mid of the hospital sign

9. Mid of injured Palestinian inside emergency room

Lebanese/Syrian border checkpoint - Arida, Northern Lebanon

10. Wide of lebanese customs building

11. Zoom out from Lebanese Syrian checkpoint

12. UN delegation and Lebanese security officials touring nearby checkpoint

13. Mid of delegation behind fence

14. Zoom out from un delegate touring

Beirut

15. Exterior of Prime ministers office's building

16. D'Alema arriving

17. Mid of D'Alema at delegations meeting

18. Mid of Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora with minister Tareq Metri

19. Wide of news conference

20. SOUNDBITE: (Italian) Massimo D'Alema, Italian foreign minister

"We expressed our support and solidarity to Lebanon, to the Lebanese and to the Lebanese forces after this attack by terrorist groups "Fatah Al-Islam" which are linked to Al-Qaida."

21. Cutaway of photographer

22. Cutaway of news conference

23. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Fouad Saniora, Lebanese prime minister:

"As I said recently the ratification of the Tribunal opened new horizons to revive the cooperation between all the Lebanese. There will be no solution in Lebanon without the cooperation between the Lebanese."

24. Cutaway of media

STORYLINE:

Fatah Islam militants continued to fight and Lebanese troops pounded their hideouts in the Nahr el-Bared refugee camp in northern Lebanon on the fifth day of an assault aimed at crushing them.

Clouds of smoke rose from the camp as artillery struck militant positions.

Amid a sustained army offensive on Tuesday, seven Islamic militants surrendered to a major Palestinian faction in a besieged refugee camp in northern Lebanon - marking the first tangible move by Palestinian factions against the militants.

The seven militants' surrender was the first sign that a major faction - in this case the Fatah group of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas - responded to calls by Lebanese authorities to actively campaign against the al-Qaida inspired Fatah Islam since fighting broke out May 20.

It coincided with by Abbas' renewed denunciation of the group and tacit backing of the Lebanese crackdown on militants in Nahr el-Bared.

The seven Fatah Islam members came over to Fatah positions in the southern parts of Nahr el-Bared, handed over their weapons and pledged to stay out of the fighting, said Fatah commander Major General Khaled Aref.

Major Palestinian factions have been trying to mediate an end to the confrontation.

The government wants the militants, estimated at several hundred, to surrender, but Fatah Islam has vowed to fight to death.

More than 100 people have been reported killed in the fighting, the worst internal violence since the end of Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war.

Of those were 45 soldiers, including 10 who were killed since the military launched its offensive on Friday on Nahr el-Bared.

Two other soldiers were killed in Ein el-Hilweh, another refugee camp in southern Lebanon, in separate clashes with militants there.

About 60 Fatah Islam militants were also reported killed.

At least 20 civilians have been reported dead at Nahr el-Bared, but recent civilian casualties were unknown.

The international Red Cross said Tuesday it managed to send in some medical supplies to the southern part of Nahr el-Bared - the first time since the offensive began.

The Red Cross evacuated 12 people, including one who was wounded and a pregnant woman, said spokeswoman Virginia de la Guardia, bringing the total number of evacuated people to 45 in the last two days.

Most of the camp's 31,000 residents have fled to a nearby camp, but about 5,000 civilians remained behind.

The bombardment of Nahr el-Bared has angered Palestinians in some of Lebanon's 11 other refugee camps and there were fears that fighting could spread.

Calm returned on Tuesday to Ein el-Hilweh, Lebanon's largest Palestinian refugee camp where Islamic militants sympathising with Fatah Islam clashed with troops on Sunday and Monday.

On Tuesday, the Italian minister of Foreign Affairs Massimo D'Alema met in the Lebanese capital Beirut with the Lebanese Speaker of the House Nabih Berri and the Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora.

During his talks in Beirut, Massimo D'Alema discussed the recent UN Security Council resolution 1757 to establish an international tribunal to prosecute suspects in the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, the latest development in the Palestinian camps, as well as other regional and international developments.

In a joint press conference at the Grand Serail (Prime ministers office building) D'Alema expressed his support to the Lebanese government, and security forces in the ongoing battle in North Lebanon

"We expressed our support and solidarity to Lebanon, to the Lebanese and to the Lebanese forces after this attack by terrorist groups Fatah Al-Islam which are linked to Al-Qaida."

The Lebanese Prime minister Fouad Saniora said in the press conference that there is no solution in Lebanon without the cooperation between the Lebanese

"As I said recently the ratification of the Tribunal opened new horizons to revive the cooperation between all the Lebanese. There will be no solution in Lebanon without the cooperation of all its people."

D'Alema will meet later the head of the Catholic church Patriarch Mar Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir and the head of the parliamentarian majority Saad Hariri.

SHOTLIST:

1. Lebanese Minister of State Michel Faraoun entering room

2. Cutaway Faraoun

3. SOUNDBITE: (English) Michel Faraoun, Lebanese Minister of State:

"The Fatah al Islam organisation which has aggressed the Lebanese Army has been proven to be linked to terrorist acts, and namely the Ain Alak and Bekfaya bus explosions that has taken many civilian lives. It has no direct links to traditional Palestinian organisations, security organisations, inside camps, and is known to be linked to foreign, or outside Lebanon, intelligence units. Lately the Lebanese Army and security forces had surrounded them and tightened up in order to bring some of its members to justice."

4. Cutaway hands

5. SOUNDBITE: (English) Michel Faraoun, Lebanese Minister of State:

"The aggression that was perpetrated today is linked to tentative (attempts) to destabilise security and challenge the central government and international community at a time when justice is getting closer in many files - assassination files - that have been taking place in Lebanon the last two years since the assassination of President (Prime Minister) Hariri and also at a time when the Security Council is about to adopt the international tribunal. Of course the Lebanese Army and security forces are facing this situation with determination and resolve."

6. Cutaway Faraoun

STORYLINE:

The Lebanese government on Sunday condemned the gunbattles at the Nahr el-Bared Palestinian refugee camp and Tripoli in North Lebanon, which erupted earlier on Sunday, killing at least 22 people.

Lebanon's Minister of State stressed that the army would continue its mission to put an end to violence by militants of the Fatah Islam group, which he claimed was also linked to the bus explosions on February 13 in Ain Alak and Bekfayya, east of Beirut.

Michael Faraoun said Fatah Islam did not have links to the traditional security organisations inside Palestinian refugee camps, but was instead "known to be linked to foreign, or outside Lebanon, intelligence units."

The sudden explosion of violence was linked by Faraoun, and by the anti-Syrian parliamentary majority, to efforts to create an international tribunal to try the killers of former Premier Rafik Hariri, which Syria opposes.

Faraoun said the violence was an attempt "to destabilise security and challenge the central government and international community."

He said it came "at a time when justice is getting closer in many files - assassination files - that have been taking place in Lebanon the last two years since the assassination of President (Prime Minister) Hariri and also at a time when the Security Council is about to adopt the international tribunal."

The U.N. Security Council is considering a draft resolution to impose the court after Lebanon's government and the pro-Syrian opposition failed to agree on approving it in Beirut.

The anti-Syrian majority coalition says Syria was using its allies in Lebanon to undermine approval of the court.

A U.N. investigation has linked senior Syrian security officials and allies in the Lebanese security services to the murder while Syria controlled Lebanon.

Damascus, which was forced to withdraw its army two months after Hariri's February 2005 assassination in a suicide truck bombing in Beirut, has denied the accusations.

Residents in the Nahr el-Bared Palestinian camp said at least 12 civilians were killed or wounded, but that figure could not be confirmed by Lebanese authorities, who have no presence there.

At least seven Lebanese soldiers were killed outside the refugee camp, the military said, and TV reports indicated at least three militants died in the fighting, which involved tank and grenade fire.

The violence adds one more destabilising factor to conflict-ridden Lebanon, which is in the midst of its worst political crisis between the Western-backed government and pro-Syrian opposition since the end of the 1975-90 Lebanese civil war.

The clash between army troops surrounding the Palestinian refugee camp and fighters from the Fatah Islam militant group began after a gunbattle raged in a neighbourhood of close by Tripoli, witnesses said.

The militant group is an offshoot of the pro-Syrian Fatah Uprising, which broke from the mainstream Palestinian Fatah movement in the early 1980s and has headquarters in Syria.

As with many other small factions in Lebanon, Fatah Islam's allegiance is sometimes unclear in this deeply polarised country.

Some Lebanese security officials consider that Fatah Islam is now a radical Sunni Muslim group with ties to al-Qaida, or at least al-Qaida style militancy and doctrine.

But some anti-Syrian government officials say they are a front for Syrian military intelligence aimed at destabilising Lebanon.