World : IN BRIEF : LEBANON : 2 U.S. Lawmakers Travel to Beirut

Two U.S. lawmakers visited Beirut and reportedly tried to persuade Christian leader Maj. Gen. Michel Aoun to accept an Arab League-sponsored peace plan. Reps. Mary Rose Oaker (D-Ohio) and Nick J. Rahall II (D-W.Va.), both of Lebanese descent, met with Aoun for about three hours at the badly damaged presidential palace in Baabda. The two reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to peace in the area despite the withdrawal last month of all American diplomats from the country. Aoun opposes the peace plan approved by members of the Lebanese Parliament meeting in Saudi Arabia because the agreement was not reached on Lebanese soil and it provides no definite timetable for the withdrawal of Syrian troops in Lebanon.