BEIRUT: The U.S. Embassy denied media reports Friday that the deputy to Middle East peace envoy George Mitchell, Frederic Hof planned to visit Beirut to follow up on the Lebanon-Israel maritime borders dispute. 

“Hof has no plans to visit Lebanon at present,” a statement from the embassy said.

The embassy also sought to downplay recent talk of conflict between Israel and Lebanon over disputed maritime borders, after Israel in July submitted a map to the U.N. demarcating an exclusive economic zone which differs to the borders in a claim submitted by Lebanon in October 2010.

“It is entirely normal in the practice of international boundary-making that their claims differ,” the statement said. “Numerous countries have overlapping EEZ claims, but almost nowhere is it a cause for conflict.”

 As-Safir newspaper reported Friday that Hof, along with American experts, was set to visit Lebanon in an attempt to solve the dispute and prepare for U.S. investment in the areas.  

On April 15 Hof visited a delegation from the Lebanese Army and discussed Lebanese-Israeli maritime borders with the Lebanese Army, according to several press reports. The meeting was dominated by a lengthy discussion on Lebanon’s disputed maritime borders and a possible exploration of offshore oil fields in the Mediterranean Sea, according to the reports.

The embassy also restated its denial of a report in Haaretz newspaper earlier this month that the U.S. had “conducted a review and endorsed the document” Lebanon sent to the U.N. demarcating the borders.

“The United States has not and will not endorse either Israel or Lebanon's claim.  We are not a party to this issue, which must be resolved diplomatically by the parties themselves,” Friday’s statement said. 

It also noted that while the U.S. was prepared to assist in any manner the two sides agree on, the parties should decide how the disputed matter should be reconciled.

Lebanon’s declared EEZ is said to contain billions of cubic meters of fossil fuel and be worth an estimated $6 billion and Lebanese ministers say that Israel’s recent border demarcation infringes on 860 square kilometers of sea containing oil and gas reserves belonging to Lebanon.

The U.N. is said to be ready to intervene to resolve the maritime border issue, in order to allow each country to legitimately commence fossil fuel exploration.

Israel and Lebanon are technically in a state of war and do not have diplomatic relations.