BEIRUT: Lebanon submitted a request to extend the mandate of UNIFIL forces for a year to U.N. Secretary General Bank Ki-moon, sources said Sunday.

The mandate as laid out in United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 July war between Lebanon and Israel, ends on Aug. 30. 

The Security Council is expected to discuss the issue and extend the mandate in late August after Ban submits an official letter to the council. 

There are 15,000 UNIFIL troops from 36 countries and 11,832 uniformed personnel currently in south Lebanon to monitor the cessation of hostilities between Lebanon and Israel and to accompany and assist the Lebanese Army in deploying its troops in the south and securing its borders.

This article was amended on July 25. An editing error had the U.N. Security Council Resolution as 170, it should have said 1701. The resolution did not establish UNIFIL, as the original article said, but extended its mandate in the south.