Greek Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis yesterday pleaded with the United Nations to take a more active role in trying to resolve the crisis in the Middle East after meeting in Athens with Lebanese Ambassador William Habib.

“The Security Council of the UN, the guardian of peace, security and international law, has to utilize its role and its powers so that we can get out of this dead end,” Bakoyannis said.

Greece is currently a member of the UN Security Council and the foreign minister said Athens supported calls by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon.

Habib thanked the Foreign Ministry and the Greek people for their help in evacuating refugees from Beirut and in supplying humanitarian aid. The ambassador said Greece was the first country to send aid to Lebanon.

Some 22 tons of medicines and supplies from Greece arrived in Beirut yesterday morning on board the Greek navy gunship Icaria.