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"I am not frightened by the words `U.N. Security Council Resolution 425.' These are not words which are unacceptable to me, and I declare that Israel is prepared to implement this decision in its entirety," Mordechai was quoted as saying.

Mordechai also proposed reaching an "interim security agreement" with Lebanon, in which he envisioned an Israel Defense Force withdrawal from south Lebanon and its replacement by the Lebanese Army and possibly international forces.

In the past, then-defense minister Yitzhak Rabin repeatedly stated that Israel was in favor of a de facto acceptance of Resolution 425, but conditioned it on a solution for the militiamen of the South Lebanese Army and the disarming of anti-Israel guerrillas.

While Mordechai's position hardly differs from Rabin's, it comes amid a heavy public debate on the continued IDF presence in the security zone and from mounting pressure for a unilateral withdrawal.

Defense sources insist that Mordechai's statements did not mean that Israel has decided to change its security concept there and that the IDF would remain in Lebanon. Mordechai's statement, they said, was putting the ball into the court of Lebanon and Syria, which have consistently demanded Israel abide by Resolution 425.

Mordechai said that without effective Lebanese control in south Lebanon, a unilateral Israeli withdrawal is unlikely. "For the IDF to get out of Lebanon, peace and security have to be restored as [the resolution] states, and I know of only one way to do so: by halting terror and violence, preventing attacks against Israel from Lebanese territory, creating normalized, good relations on both sides of the border, and cooperation between the IDF and Lebanese Army."

Labor Knesset member Yossi Beilin, who recently helped set up the Movement for a Peaceful Departure from Lebanon, praised Mordechai's "courageous" stance. But in a statement released Saturday night, Beilin noted the significance of Resolution 425 is that it is unconditional.

This past year has been particularly vicious for the IDF. Thirty-nine soldiers were killed in action in Lebanon, nearly 50 percent more than in the previous three years. This does not include the 73 servicemen killed in the collision of two helicopters ferrying troops to Lebanon last February. In contrast, 60 Hezbollah guerrillas have been killed by the IDF and Israel Air Force. In the previous three years an average of 95 had been killed.

Still, Mordechai stressed that for the moment, there is no better solution for protecting the North than the present arrangement.

"I don't see any way to change it, unless an alternative can be found based on the deployment of the Lebanese Army in south Lebanon," Mordechai said. "Any agreement which will bring security to the residents of the north will be seriously considered."