Israel provides maps of minefields to U.N.

? Israel on Monday handed over maps of minefields it laid in southern Lebanon during its nearly two-decade occupation, meeting a key requirement of the U.N. cease-fire resolution that ended this summer’s war with Hezbollah militants, a U.N. statement said.

Disclosing the locations of several hundred thousand mines that were laid during Israel’s 1982-2000 occupation of a border zone in southern Lebanon has been one of the main demands of the Lebanese government and Hezbollah guerrillas.

Israel’s army gave the maps to peacekeepers Monday during a meeting of Lebanese, Israeli and U.N. generals at the headquarters of the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon in the border town of Naqoura, the statement said. UNIFIL, in turn, handed over the maps to the U.N. Mine Action Coordination Center and the Lebanese army for review.